Orange Cupcakes

How was your weekend? I had a fun-filled weekend, thanks for asking ;) It was my friend's birthday and I wanted to bake a lovely cake for her. Yeah Yeah just another excuse for me to bake cake. haha. Do you really need an occasion to bake/eat cake? I just get hyper excited and my imaginations run wild when I think of baking a cake. It's so easy to please a girl by cake because there are zillion no. of ways(girly stuff) you can decorate the cake. But it's so tough to impress a guy with a birthday cake. It was my 'much' better half's 30th birthday this year and I wanted to make it special by baking a geeky cake which is the only way to impress him.This is what I baked for his birthday.

Geeky right? :D 

So, I was thrilled to bits to surprise my friend with a lovely birthday cake. Since I was on orange smoothie heaven at that time, I thought why not Orange Cupcakes which has the right amount of citrus flavor, smeared with frosting and a orange wedge on top :D You get the picture? No? Ok see this

Ok enough said. Let me give you the recipe.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 cup of granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp of oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp orange extract

Method

makes about 16 cupcakes

• Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 350 deg F
• In a large bowl, add butter & sugar; cream until light and fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time,beat well after every addition. Add orange extract and oil.
• Mix flour,salt and baking powder well. Add this dry mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with orange juice and water.Beat well after every addition.
• Beat until smooth.Pour batter into cupcake liners 3/4th full.
• Bake in preheated oven for 25-27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.Cool completely and frost with your favorite frosting.   

Decorating ideas

I used Betty Crocker whipped vanilla frosting. Smeared it evenly on the top of cupcake.

• Cut orange into thin wedges and place on top of cupcakes.
• Or you can sprinkle some orange colored sugar over the frosting.

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