Orange Cupcake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I did orange cupcakes before and posted in October archives, however this time I followed the original recipe all the way through except for the vanilla beans and the type of sugar (this one accidentally …ooppssss). I almost panicked because of using the normal white sugar instead of caster sugar. I can hear the sound of sugar while they were being beat together with butter, and finally I gave up trying to smooth them after 15 minutes and continued with the next step. FYI, I made three batches of the recipes in one go, so it was making me nervous that the cupcakes would fail. It was 11 at night and I was intended to give the cupcakes to my neighbor’s daughter second birthday party the morning after. Thank God the cupcakes turned out just fine.

I was researching for so many cupcakes decorations and alternatives. I was thinking of making elmo’s and cookie monster’s cupcake. However, I am afraid that the frosting would taste so chemically because of excessive using of food coloring. So I decided to make butterfly decoration instead. Actually it is easier to use royal icing in making those butterflies, but I try to make my cupcake kid’s friendly, that was the reason why I use dark chocolate and white chocolate tinted pink.

I found so many difficulty in making these butterflies:

• The antennas are completely useless. They were too fragile despite of sticking them together by using melted chocolate. It is better off to draw the antennas using melted chocolate after you finish combining both of butterfly wings. However, drawing the antennas mean that you don’t get the three dimensional effect. Oh well… nobody noticed the antennas in the party
• The white chocolate is really hard to work with. They need to be stirred all the time and you can’t left them or do it in the microwave like the dark chocolate. When they are melted and combined together with the coloring, do not over mix them or otherwise the white chocolate will be ruined and too thick to work with.
• The white chocolate doesn’t seem to be harden at the room temperature, so I need to put them in the freezer for 5 minutes or so. However, you need to work quickly as they are fragile and prone to heat.

Next time, I will just do all of the butterflies wings with the dark chocolate and add some dots as the pattern on the wings.

Ingredients for Orange Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from http://iheartcuppycakes.com/2009/09/20/orange-creamsicle-cupcakes/

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup thickened cream
• 1 tbsp orange zest + 1/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 114 gr unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 cup caster sugar (I use 150 gr of normal white sugar)
• 2 vanilla beans, scraped (I didn’t use this)
• 2 large eggs

Ingredients for Lemon Cello Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Recipe adapted from http://www.mytartelette.com/2009/07/recipe-meyer-lemon-limoncello-cupcakes.html

• 60 gr unsalted butter, at room temperature (I use reduced salt butter)
• 120 gr cream cheese, at room temperature (I use Philadelphia)
  
• 1 tbsp lemon cello (I used 1/2 tbsp orange essence)
• 1 cup icing sugar (I used 1/3 cup )
  

Preparation time (duration): 45

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!