Orange Vanilla Cupcakes

Orange Vanilla Cupcakes

Candy the oranges the night before, seriously. They are a pain.

Cupcakes:

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp orange zest

1/4 cup orange juice (if you can squeeze it out of the orange you zested, that's the best)

1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup sugar

2 vanilla beans, halved.

2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. In another bowl, combine cream, orange juice, and vanilla.

Cream the butter, sugar, zest, and vanilla beans together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Add in flour mixture alternating with cream mixture until combined.

Fill tins 3/4 full. Baking for 13 minutes, then turn, and bake for 13 minutes. Let cool.

Candied Orange Slices:

2-3 small oranges

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Slice the oranges into thin slices and remove seeds.

Bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring, until clear. Add the orange slices to fit in one layer -- if they don't, you will need to do the candying in two batches -- some overlap of slices is okay. Simmer for 40 minutes. Put slices in a container of some kind -- I used a pyrex 9x11 baking dish -- in one layer, along with syrup, and let cool.

Confession time. I tried to make the recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream given here but it did not work for me, and I ended up frosting the cupcakes with my usual standby icing, which is what you see in the photographs. I am still going to provide the original icing recipe, since maybe you will have better luck with it than I did!

Icing:

2 egg whites

1/4 cup sugar

1 stick butter, cup into tablespoons and room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl using a double boiler -- I use my metal mixing bowl and a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar has dissolved. It will feel smooth if you rub a little between your fingers. Take off heat.

Whisk until stiff peaks form and mixture is completely cool, about 10 minutes.

Add butter a few tablespoons at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Switch from a whisk to a beater and and beat until frosting is completely smooth (don't forget to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically).

Tint if desired.

Ice the cupcakes with your icing, and then lay a candied orange slice overtop. Warning: you may want to drain the orange slices before you use them; they are pretty sticky with syrup, and in my case they oozed everywhere and got the cupcake wrappers and plate pretty sticky.

If you can't get vanilla beans, don't worry about it (they can be pretty pricey). I left them out because I didn't have any on hand, and the recipe certainly didn't suffer for it.

Adapted from Martha Stewart's cupcakes.