Orange Cupcakes/ How To Make Easy Orange Cupcakes

Orange cupcake is an easy recipe to make with a handful of ingredients. It is super fluffy and delicious to indulge. In addition to this super soft cake, simple vanilla whipped cream frosting adds a mild sweetness to the bursting orange flavour cupcakes.

This orange cupcakes and frosting is an easy regular vanilla cake recipe with sweet orange juice and a tablespoon and more of orange zest. Orange juice and orange zest do wonder in flavour and taste and, you can taste in every bite of the cake. Love for citrus fruits, then this recipe is for you!

Difference between a cupcake and a muffin

Many get confused with the difference between a cupcake and a muffin. Some believe both are the same. It is not! I love to brief and share my thoughts on the difference between a cupcake and a muffin.

Cupcake

Cupcakes are made by creaming the sugar and butter together to get a smooth, creamy, and fluffy batter. To achieve the creamy consistency, beating the butter and sugar mixture takes a long time than a muffin. The beating process is an essential factor for a fluffy sponge cake.

The most visual difference between cupcakes and muffins is the frosting. Cupcakes frostings are creamy frostings like buttercream, cream cheese, and whipped cream.

Muffin

The mixing and consistency of the batter are relatively different. Yes, beating muffin batter is brief and, it remains thick and lumpy. It gives a dense baked muffin.

Muffins do not have cream toppings. It has a thin sugar glaze frosting or just a plain muffin.

The excitement part of the muffins is the mix-ins. Any filling like cocoa chips, nuts, dried fruits adds curiosity to every bite.

The ingredients used for both the cupcakes and muffins are the same like flour, butter, sugar etc.
In muffins, you can replace all-purpose flour and add whole wheat flour or any nut flour. Also, you can substitute oil in place of butter. The amount of sugar and butter is less in muffins than cupcakes.

Ingredients needed for orange cupcakes

• all-purpose flour
• butter
• egg
• sugar
• orange juice
• orange zest
• baking powder
• pinch of salt
• vanilla extract

The above ingredients are for the orange cupcakes. I used premium Tropolite whip topping for the frosting. As I’m not a big fan of buttercream, I opt for whipped cream frosting.

Let’s see how to make orange cupcakes with step by step preparation.

In a wide dry bowl add sugar and room temperature unsalted butter and beat until the mixture turns creamy and smooth.

In a separate bowl beat egg until frothy. Add the beaten egg to the butter sugar mixture.

Beat the mixture for two to three minutes until smooth creamy consistency as shown in the picture. This step is important to achieve soft fluffy cupcakes.

Now sieve all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt together into the butte cream mixture. Then gently fold in flour mixture with spatula using cut and fold method.

Now add in freshly squeezed orange juice, orange zest and vanilla extract. Gently mix until it is well combined. Make sure not to overmix.

Scoop in the cake batter in the cup liners and gently tap the baking tray onto the kitchen counter. It helps to release the air pockets that may cause a holey uneven texture in your baked cakes.

Preheat oven to 180 C . Bake it for 15 to 17 minutes or until inserted tooth pick comes out clean. I baked in microwave convection oven and it took exactly 17 minutes to bake. Remove from cake tin and let it cool completely before frosting. Every oven is different, so have an eye after 15 minutes.

Whip non-dairy whipping cream with a drop of vanilla extract until it forms stiff peaks. I used a star nozzle to make a simple flower. Finally, garnish it with a slice of fresh orange and mint leaves.

What to serve with orange cupcakes?

Serve orange cupcakes with a cup of hot coffee or milk. It can be eaten hot from out of the oven. It is perfect for a kid’s snack box and dessert for any party. A scoop of any flavoured ice cream goes well with cupcakes. It is my way of relishing cupcakes.

How to store cupcakes?

After baking, let it cool completely. Cling wrap each cupcake in a cling wrap and store it in a zip lock bag. It will be fresh for a month. Thaw the cupcakes to room temperature and frost the cupcakes before serving.

I hope you like the recipe! If you like it, rate the recipe and write your feedback which means a lot to me. I always love to hear from you guys and respond as soon as possible. Happy Baking!

More cake recipes you may like to try

Eggless Butterless Mango Cake

Mama’s(Amma’s) Old Fashioned Butter Cake

Fresh Strawberry Cake

Basic Vanilla Cake/Easy Vanilla Cake

Eggless Butterless Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Orange Marble Cake

Notes

Butter should be at room temperature. You can use salted butter. Then skip adding salt to the flour mixture.

Beat sugar and butter until you get creamy smooth fluffy consistency.

Beat egg in a separate bowl until frothy.

You can use store bought orange juice. It is a must to add orange zest to get the bursting citrus flavour.