Recipe: Dreamsicle Cupcakes

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.  ~Henry James


Yesterday was the first of March, which has me craving warmth and summer time Chicago.  And as a resident of  Chicago for many years I'm well aware that both might not arrive for quite some time.  So I decided to put my summer in a dessert, thus creating my version of a Dreamsicle in the form of a cupcake.  The recipe is loosely based on a lemon cupcake recipe that I found, replacing the lemon juice and lemon zest with the juice and zest of an orange.  


Ingredients: 

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of orange extract (I only had lemon, so I used this as a substitute for the citrus flavor)½ cup milk
juice of one orange (approx 2/3 cup)
zest of one orange


1. Preheat oven to 350. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Measure out milk and vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
6. Mix in orange juice and orange zest.
7. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. FROST!

The batter with with orange zest.

I added red & yellow food coloring to the batter.  After cooking it came out more pink than the bright orange I wanted so I would definitely add more yellow in the future. 

Frosting:
I used a basic vanilla buttercream recipe frosting like this one.  Set aside about a quarter of the plain vanilla frosting.  Add 3 tablespoons of orange juice and half a teaspoon of orange extract (again, I had to use lemon as a substitute).  After mixing the citrus flavors I added the red and yellow food coloring for the bright orange look of the Dreamsicle. 


The finished product: 

Yum!

Cupcake Exposed.

The finished product was good, very sweet and very citrus.  The orange flavor was not as prominent as I had hoped, but I'm looking forward to trying this recipe again with orange extract and hopefully I'll get the desired orange result.  But it's definitely a cupcake that makes me think of warm summer days :)

Recipe: Milky Way Cupcakes

Part of being a foodie is the preparation of food, so I figured I’d use this site to document the recipes I come up with.  I am always thinking of new concepts for cupcakes and a few months ago I decided to turn my favorite chocolate bar into a cupcake.  Thus, Milky way Cupcakes were born!  I’ve been playing around with various “plain” cupcake recipes  to doctor up with different candies and flavors and I found one I love.  I use the same “plain” batter for my cookies and cream cupcakes and I have also altered it slightly to make fruit flavored cupcakes.  These cupcakes consist of pieces of Milky Way candy bars and they’re topped with a decadent caramel frosting.  To say this cupcake is sweet would be quite an understatement.  Below you’ll find the recipe along with my photos of the process.  Feel free to comment on where I could improve and also let me know how it turns out if you decide to try it out on your own!

“Plain” Cupcake Recipe: 

1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup milk

***Add 8 little bars or 2.5 regular sized bars to the mix for the Milky Way cupcakes.

Mix Butter & Sugar in a large bowl.  Stir each egg into the mixture, making sure the first is fully incorporated before adding the second egg.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder & salt in a separate bowl.

Since I don't drink milk, I keep several cans of evaporated milk on hand for recipes that require milk.  Alternate mixing the dry ingredients with the milk into the sugar mixture.  Stir until fully blended.

The Best Part: Milky Ways!

I used my cutting board to chop the miniature Milky Ways into smaller pieces.  

Mix the chopped Milky Way pieces into the batter.

The cupcakes are ready to go in the oven.  Bake at 350 for 16-18 minutes.

 Caramel Frosting: 

This recipe I obtained from allrecipes.com (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/caramel-frosting-i/Detail.aspx)

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

**I use this recipe as a base and then add more milk and powdered sugar, alternatively, until I get the texture and amount of frosting I need.

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Add the milk after the butter has fully melted.

Add the brown sugar to the heated mixture and bring to a boil for approximately one minute.  Remove the brown sugar mixture from the heat and add the powdered sugar and vanilla.  Continue alternately adding powdered sugar and milk until  you achieve the desired texture and amount of frosting you need.

Milky Way Cupcake!