Orange Creamcicle Cupcakes

So I was in the mood to bake...I rarely get that feeling, so I decided to make the most of it. I decided that cupcakes sounded good, I could use my cupcake carrier that my wonderful friends Liz & Rob gave us for our wedding and take most them up to my parents tomorrow when I go to spend time with my parents.

I wanted to make a cream cheese frosting to go with the cupcakes, because...let's face it, I could eat that stuff with a spoon! Anyway...I found that I had all the ingredients to make a vanilla cupcake and cream cheese frosting...except I wanted to flavor them with the orange extract I had but didn't have the confectioners sugar! Luckily, I did some investigative work via the wonderful internet and found that you can blend regular sugar into powdered sugar!

Unfortunately, I didn't blend long enough or something, it looked and felt pretty powdery, but it made the frosting very gritty...Paul didn't care for the texture, I thought it tasted good, just a little crunch to it. Next time I make these, I'll have regular confectioners sugar and they will be even more spectacular.
Vanilla Cupcakes (which I transformed into orange)
Recipe courtesy of www.joyofbaking.com

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp. Vanilla extract (I substituted Orange extract)
• Zest of 1 large lemon (optional – I omitted)
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ tsp. Baking powder
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¼ cup milk

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
• For the Cupcakes: Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. If you want flat topped cupcakes then slice off the dome of each cupcake, with a sharp knife, before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe courtesy of Slashfood

Ingredients

• 8 oz. cold cream cheese
• 5 tbs. butter, softened
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract (I used 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1/2 tsp. orange)
• 2 cups confectioners sugar

Directions

• Beat cold cream cheese (right out of fridge is fine), the butter and the extract together until combined.
• Add the sugar a little at a time until all combined and uniform. You can add more sugar here until the frosting reaches the desired consistency.