Is that I am a lousy photographer. I could blame it on my camera (which, truth be told, isn't all that great), but it really wouldn't be fair. Mostly the problem is just that I take bad pictures.
Like this one, to give you a for example:
After four tries, that's the most decent shot I could come up with of one of the orange cupcakes I made yesterday. It's blurry and overexposed, and generally not worthy of posting.
I've been a cupcake-making demon the last two weeks. My friend Julie got married this past weekend, and a bunch of us are throwing a party for her in October, and I'm in charge of dessert. Going with the current trend, I decided on cupcakes. For 100 people, many most of whom I do not know. A little advance testing is in order here.
Fortunately, I am blessed with a church full of guinea pigs, and an office that is less full, but still very willing. The first tests consisted of a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing (yes, I know, blasphemy) and a chocolate cupcake with cinnamon coffee icing. Today's selection was an orange cupcake with citrus icing, and ooooooh, it is yummy. Here's the recipe:
Orange cupcakes
1 box yellow cake mix (could also use lemon)
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 11 oz. can mandarin oranges, undrained
Mix it all together and bake, in cupcake cups, at 350 for about 20 minutes. (N.B.: this cake does not scream "orange" on its own, although it is very nice when combined with the frosting below. I'm going to try it again next weekend with a little orange extract tossed in. It's also tempting to add a bit of red food coloring to make the batter more orangey, but I'm going for citrus, not Halloween, so we'll see.)
Citrus Frosting
1.5 Tb. Orange zest, minced fine
1 tsp. lemon zest, minced fine
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp lemon juice (I didn't measure, I just squeezed a bit in)
Orange juice
Combine all ingredients except orange juice and mix well. Add orange juice a tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition, until the frosting is of spreading consistency.
These were pretty good when freshly made yesterday, but I think they're even better today--the flavors have developed a bit. The cake is a wee bit on the dry side; I may try to remedy that with some buttermilk next time. The frosting is lovely--white with teeny tiny flecks of orange and yellow (be sure you mince the zest really, really well. You do not want crunchy frosting.)
Yum! Bloggers have the best recipes...this past weekend we made a peach pie from Mother Chaos, and it was EXCELLENT. My daughter is getting interested in cooking, and this sounds like something she'd enjoy. Thanks!!
Posted by: Judy | September 05, 2006 at 04:25 PM
Thanks for sharing these recipes - it looks totally yummy, I'll make sure to try it out soon!
Posted by: Dipsy D. | September 06, 2006 at 05:32 AM