Mandarin orange cupcake with love

I received a $10 gift voucher from Coles in the mail from Nuffnang and amongst other goodies! One of the challenge was to spend the $10 in a creative, interesting or fun way. Since I have never ever baked cupcakes before, I thought it will be funny and pray that it tured out to be a good first attempt. Did a little research and settled for orange cupcakes with orange icing with cute toppings that I could find at Coles.

It was interesting to shop in a different supermarket. The lanes are different but most products sold are the same. Actually, the lanes are wider at Coles. But anyway, I headed straight to the baking area where all the goodies are. I thought that I would be piping the icing over the top of the cake so I got myself a cake decorating bag set. And I caught eye of some little hearts. So cute and I so I bought a tube of it. And on the way out, I caught eye of the mini m&m’s! Perfect. Chocolate and orange worked well together. Things got a little tricky at the counter where I had to swop things to get to $10. It was good that I had other required ingredients back home or I would have blown the $10.

What I got from Coles

Disclaimer: Please bear in mind that I have never baked any cupcakes before and I have atrociously bad baking skills. My skill lies in eating desserts & sweets.

Ingredients:

Cupcake (Makes 10)

• 200 grams flour
• 100 grams sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 large eggs, separated and whites beaten until stiff
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 mandarin orange
• 11/2 teaspoons of orange blossom
• 125 grams softened butter

Orange icing

• 180 grams icing  sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon Mandarin orange zest
• 3 tablespoons or 10grams of soft butter
• 2-3 tablespoons orange juice (1/2 mandarin orange)

cupcake ingredients

Method:

Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Cream butter, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla in the mixing bowl
   Mix flour, salt, and baking powder together in a separate mixing bowl.
3. Slowly add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to creamed ingredients 1/3 and alternate with adding portions of the orange juice to the mixture.
   Beat the egg whites to a stiff peak and gently fold into creamed ingredients
4. Spoon batter into cupcake liners until 1/2 full.
5. Bake in oven between 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean

Cupcake mix in tin

The cake

Orange Icing Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together and only use 2 tablespoons of the orange juice.
2. Add more orange juice if the frosting is too thick

Playtime

1. Leave the cupcakes to cool on cooling rack for at least 30-45mins
2. Pipe the icing from the top of the cupcake or use a spoon to spread it all over the cupcake
3. Decorate by sprinkling love hearts and M&Ms on the icing

Orange cupcake with orance icing and love

Allow it to rest for 30mins and if you can’t wait, EAT it immediately. And that was exactly what I did. The cake itself was light, moist and packed with strong but delicate orange flavour. The icing wasn’t perfect and it took some time in the mixer but it turned out OK in the end. A tad too sweet for me but isn’t cupcakes suppose to be sweet? I love how I could still see little orange strands.

Overall, I am quite please with the results and it has given me a confidence to make more cupcakes and to be more adventurous and creative.

Does anyone have any stories to tell about their first attempt with baking? Please do share!