The 1st of 50

Ladies and Gents the first cupcake in my Cupcake Challenge:

ORANGE CLOVE CUPCAKES!!!!

This is number 3 on the list and I have to say I really enjoyed this one for two reasons

one: I got to make my own candies

&

two: I baked with my best friend and blog mate J-Rita

We haven't back with each other in a while so it was lovely plus we cracked open a bottle of wine and thats always a good time.

Any who,

Now when I saw the recipe I was a little worried, so much oil and 5 EGGS yikes. But whatevs I'll do what the recipe tells me.

The first thing we did was peel the oranges, I took a vegetable peeler and that worked just fine. We then cut them in to strips about a centimeter thick and plopped them in to a bowl with 4 cups water a tablespoon of salt. Which we set aside and left over night.

On to the cakes!

PREHEAT!!!!! 350 degrees (hard parts over)

What you will need:

• 3 cups of flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of grated orange zest
• 5 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup of orange juice (no pulp)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cloves

1. Combine flour, ground cloves, salt and baking powered and set aside.

*SIDE NOTE* if you look at the recipe it says to put the orange zest in there as well, but i found a better way.

                                       Stay tuned so see what happens!

     2. Pour sugar into a bowl along with the orange zest, continue to fold the sugar and zest until                   sugar in moist.

Now you may think this is weird, because I did the first time I did it, use a big spatula and keep folding and pressing...you'll see what I mean.

     3. Pour in the eggs and beat for 30 seconds until fluffy. Then add vanilla and oil until its all    mixed together.

    4. Alternate adding the dry mix and the orange juice. Once all is added beat for another 30 seconds.

   

    5. Scoop into cupcake papers (I like to use a 1/4 cup measuring cup, it's the perfect amount) Bake for 18-22 minutes.

J-Rita taught me to rotate the pans half way threw the backing process. If you are just making one pan turn it 180 degrees and move it to the other rack. 

Oh Snap! Fish Eye Lens!

So I think it's time to admit that frosting is the bane of my existence . No matter how carefully I follow instructions it's never right. So I always end up doing my own little concoction and for the most part the turn out ok. 

So here is what you'll need:

• 1 cup butter, room temp as per always.
• 6 cups of powdered sugar, I know I know its a lot but after the 4 cups it asked for it just wasn't the consistency i wanted :-( but just keep adding until you are happy with it. 
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup whipping cream, this is also something I added in
• 1/2 teaspoon orange extract, it was vanilla put screw that! vanilla get to have all the fun. Other extracts need to shine too!

So....

1. Beat the butter until soft

2. Add sugar, milk, whipping cream and extract until soft. AGAIN keep adding sugar until you have the consistency you desire.

3. Put that bad boy on your COOLED cupcakes.

I can tell you how many times as a young baker I iced to early. Even slightly warm cakes will melt the frosting and cause it to fall right off your cake. Have patience it's totally worth it in the end.

I also thought to put some food coloring in there to add a little zaz! I found this awesome food coloring chart that shows you plenty of beautiful colors that you can make from a simple standard (red, blue, green, yellow) food color box. I chose a nice light orange color, 6 drops of red and 8 drops of yellow.

So there are the cakes.

CUT TO:

My alarm goes off at 6:30, I wake up having NO IDEA why I am up so early. And if you know me you know that if I have to be out of the house at 8 am my alarm will go off as late as 7:45. I like my sleep. So this 6:30 crap threw me off, them I remembered, THE CUPCAKES.

So I went down stairs and began something I had never done before: "Candied" I don't even know if thats a proper term but I'm using it and if it catches on I want my money!

So remember that bowl of peels I had you set aside...I assume you did because if you are reading this and NOT baking I don't think we can be friends anymore. So yeah the bowl...drain it. Now in order to et the salty bitter taste out throw the  peels in a pan and pour two cups of cool water over them. place on the stove and wait till the water boils, then drain again. REPEAT THIS 3 TIMES, don't be lazy or you'll have Nasty things on your cupcakes and then everyone won't like you.

For the next step you need:

• 2 cups of sugar plus a 1/2 cup for rolling
• 1/2 cup water
• a pinch of ground cloves

1. In a sauce pan combine the 2 cups sugar, water and the orange peels. Heat and stir until the sugar had dissolved and the peels have become slightly translucent. This can take about ten minutes and you have to keep stirring.

2. Drain the liquid, be careful it will be hot and sticky, think of tasty hot glue... NOTE this will be messy, really messy.

scoop the peels into some form of Tupperware that has a lid and  that contains the other 1/2 cup of sugar and the pinch of cloves. You may think it will be one big clump but if you shake it hard enough it will all seperate. You might have to pull a few apart from each other but not many. 

And they have become edible!

Once that is done place them on you're cupcakes and you are done!

Yay!!!!!

These were an awesome first cupcake challenge cupcake. I hope you make them and enjoy them as much as I did!

Stay tuned! There are more cupcakes to come!

Keep Mixing,

J-Bolt