Vanilla Cupcakes with orangy twist

Like i mentioned earlier I'm taking the rains as an excuse to bake.My LM saw these beautiful muffins in the newspaper and asked for some...I knew where she was getting..she wants the icing not the muffin.I sealed a deal i told her she'll get the icing with the muffin!So muffins it was for her on her rainy day holiday :)

They were an easy and quick recipe i found at Joy Of Baking.

Preparation time: 1 hour (baking + mixing)
Makes 12 mini muffins and 3 large ones

You need


All purpose flour 1 cup (heaped)
Butter/ vegetable oil 1/2 cup(softened at room temperature)
Eggs 2
Milk 1/4 cup
Baking powder 1 n half tsp
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Orange zest of one orange(original recipes calls for lemon zest)
Sugar half a cup or more
Salt a pinch

• Grease the muffin tray or moulds/ line them and set aside.Preheat oven at 250C.
• Mix the flour,baking soda, salt and orange zest.Set aside.
• Cream the butter(i used oil) with sugar until fluffy.Then add eggs beating well after each addition.Add the milk and vanilla essence beat well until well combined.
• Add the wet mix to the dry one mixing in well.
• Spoon in the batter to the tray, fill the moulds until 3/4th.
• Bake at 160C for 30 minutes or until the tops crack.

For the butter cream icing,I used:

I used a very small portion as it was my first time at icing muffins.

Icing sugar 2 tablespoons

Butter 2 tsp ( softened at room temperature)

Cream 1 tsp

Vanilla essence few drops

Food color of your choice.

• Beat all the above into a smooth paste.Make a plastic cone out of any plastic sheet and fill in the icing into it and pipe onto the muffins once they cool.

Beautiful cupcakes with pink frosting ready to gobble down!

Sending this to Bake fest@Zestypalette

and Winter carnival@ticklickpalates