Jaffa Orange Cake with Orange Glaze

Well, I'm back from Germany and I finally have time to post up the last cake I baked. The recipe is modified from one I previously modified and posted, so I'm not going to post all of my process photos, just the final product. Enjoy!


It all started with some oranges...


The finished product.





This particular cake got a little dark, but the orange flavour was so strong and lovely. The glaze on the outside hardened just enough to give a crisp bite on the outside of the very moist and soft cake inside.

Recipe

Jaffa Orange Cake with Orange Glaze
Cake
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups freshly squeezed orange juice*
Glaze
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons orange juice, fresh
1 teaspoon orange zest (optional)

×××

Cake
Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake pan, and dust lightly with flour. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into a bowl. Add the oil, orange zest and vanilla and mix the batter with a fork or small whisk. When the batter is uniform, add the orange juice and stir quickly. The batter will foam slightly where the baking soda and the orange juice are reacting. Stir just until the orange juice is evenly distributed throughout the batter. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Allow to cool before glazing or frosting.
Glaze
Sift the sugar into a bowl. Add the orange juice (and zest, if using) and whisk until smooth. Pour over cooled cake.

*I used jaffa oranges, but any oranges with a strong flavour will do just fine.

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Chocolate Orange Marble Cupcakes with Chocolate Orange Ganache

It was my birthday well over a month ago now. On that day, I had one class at 8.30AM. I decided to treat those who actually showed up by bringing in cupcakes. Also, I just like making cupcakes. I modified my vanilla and chocolate marble cake to come up with these lovely cupcakes, so I didn't take step-by-step photos. The recipe is posted below!


Fresh from the oven. I made a recipe and a half and filled the cups quite high, so the domes came out beautifully, I think.


I made a simple chocolate ganache with some orange juice concentrate in it to top them, and decorated them with a few orange star-shaped sprinkles.

Recipes

Chocolate Orange Marble Cupcakes

×××

1 ½ cups + ¼ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup canola oil
1 ¼ cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup plain yogurt
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 to ¼ cup thawed orange juice concentrate

×××

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tin with papers. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat oil and sugar until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl. Transfer half of batter to medium bowl. Add cocoa to batter in one bowl and orange juice concentrate to the other and beat until blended. If the orange batter is runnier than the chocolate, add the remaining ¼ cup of flour. Alternately spoon orange and chocolate batters into cups. With a knife, cut and swirl through batters to create marbled effect. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, about 25-35 minutes. Cool cupcakes in tin on a wire rack for ten minutes. Remove from pan to cool completely on rack.

For the ganache, all I did was melt some chocolate, add some cream and then add some of the left over orange juice concentrate. I didn't add very much liquid, as I wanted the ganache to form a thick layer over the dome of the cupcakes. When the cupcakes have cooled completely, dip the domes of the cupcakes into the ganache.

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Christmas 2008 Baking!

Over Christmas, particularly Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, I baked a lot. I made two lemon meringue pies, two types of cookies and a rather elaborate cake for my mother's 60th birthday. It was a very busy time, so I didn't do photos of my whole process and I apologise! But below you'll find my photos, recipes and thoughts on the things I made over Christmas!

Chocolate Shortbread Cookies with Hazelnuts



½ cup cold butter or margarine
¾ cup flour
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
75 grams chopped hazelnuts
2 tablespoons sugar

×××

Combine flour, powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Cut in the butter and continue mixing until a smooth batter forms. Roll the dough out into a 20 centimetre long roll.
Mix together chopped hazelnuts and sugar. Spread the mixture out on a baking pan, and roll the dough in the mixture. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
Preheat the oven to 325°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut the roll into thin slices and place on the cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

×××

I originally got this recipe in a Sanella recipe booklet (Sanella being a German margarine brand), which my German professor gave me. I'm not a fan or a friend of margarine, so I decided to switch it out for butter, making the cookies a lot like shortbread. Also, the recipe originally called for walnuts, and I was going to be making these cookies with my sister who is allergic to walnuts, so I switched those out for hazelnuts. These are very chocolatey cookies, however, a little dry. My suggestion would be to cut the flour down to about 2/3 cup, which would not only make them less dry, but also make the hazelnuts stick to the dough better.
All in all, a very good cookie, which I plan to make again, with the minor adjustment to the amount of flour.

Ginger chocolate chunk Cookies



7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
½ cup dark-brown sugar, packed
½ cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup granulated sugar

×××

Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate into ¼-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.
In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.
Heat oven to 325°F. Roll dough into 1 ½ inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

×××

This recipe is one I got my Anders' mum. She'd made it a few times previously and just... they are so amazing. Easily the best cookies I've ever had. The ginger is intense, the chocolate is an amazing addition and this is overall the most delicious cookie ever, and I really can't describe it well enough, so you'll just have to make them.

Lemon Meringe Pie





Crust
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, diced and chilled
1 x large egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Filling
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 ½ cups water
5 tablespoon cornstarch
5 large egg yolks
dash salt
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
½ cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
Meringue
5 large egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch

×××

Crust
For crust, combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in chilled butter until a rough crumbly texture and little bits of butter are still visible. In a small bowl, whisk egg and lemon juice. Pour all at once into flour mixture and combine just until dough comes together. Shape dough into a disc and chill for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 400 °F. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just less than ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle a 9-inch pie shell with flour and line with dough. Tuck in rough edges and crimp (pinch) with your fingers. Put pie shell in freezer just for 10 minutes to rest and firm up. Once chilled, line pastry with aluminium foil (and have foil hang over crust edges to protect it) and weigh down with pie weights, dried beans or raw rice. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 375 °F and bake 15 minutes more. Remove aluminium foil and weights and bake 10 minutes more, to dry out centre of the
shell. Cool completely before filling.
Filling
Whisk sugar, water, and cornstarch in a heavy-bottomed saucepot. Whisk in egg yolks and salt and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, whisking constantly. Increase heat to medium and, still whisking, cook until filling becomes glossy and thick, about 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice and butter until butter dissolves. Pour immediately into cooled pie shell and let cool 15 minutes. Chill completely before finishing with meringue, about 4 hours.
Meringue
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Whip egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. While whipping, gradually pour in sugar and whip on one speed less than highest until whites hold a stiff peak (the meringue stands upright when whisk is lifted). Whisk in cornstarch and dollop over chilled lemon filling. Use sweeping motions with your spatula to create swirls and peaks that look so enticing once browned. Bake pie for 10 minutes, just until meringue browns lightly. Let pie cool or chill until ready to slice.

×××

I got this recipe from Anna Olson. I love Anna Olson. I loved the idea of a lemon meringue pie crust with lemon in it. The filling also set up really nicely, which I've had problems with in the past. It was a very delicious pie, all in all. There's nothing I would change about it and I would make a million and eat them all. Everyone who ate it liked it too. Make this lemon meringue pie.

Espresso Chocolate Cake with Hazelnut Mousse and Chocolate Ganache






And one of my mum singing Happy Birthday to herself!

Espresso Cake

2-2 ½ cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup espresso, cooled
¼-½ cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar

×××

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease and flour a 9-inch springform pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, vanilla, espresso and water. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. The batter will foam slightly where the baking soda and the vinegar are reacting (you should do this only when you're ready to pour the batter into the pan and put it directly in the oven). Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Cake

1 ½ cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water or brewed coffee (I used water for this one, because of the coffee layer)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons vinegar

×××

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan, and dust lightly with cocoa powder. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and sugar into a bowl. In a 2-cup measuring cup, measure and mix together the oil, water or coffee, and vanilla. Pour the liquid into the bowl and mix the batter with a fork or small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter where the baking soda and the vinegar are reacting. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.


Hazelnut Mousse (only make this when both layers are cool and ready to assemble!)

1 teaspoon agar-agar powder (gelatin substitute)
3 tablespoons cold water
½ cup chocolate hazelnut spread such as Nutella
½ cup mascarpone
1 ½ cups chilled heavy cream
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3 tablespoons sugar

×××

Sprinkle agar-agar over water in a 1- to 1 ½-quart heavy saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring, just until agar-agar is dissolved and the mixture begins to thicken. Whisk in Nutella until combined and remove from heat. In a large bowl, whisk together mascarpone and Nutella mixture. Beat together cream, cocoa powder, and sugar in another large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed until just combined, then increase speed to high and beat until cream just holds medium-firm peaks (if they're too soft, they'll deflate when everything is mixed together). Whisk one third of whipped cream into mascarpone mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whipped cream until well combined.

Simple Chocolate Ganache
1 ½ cup whipping cream
½ lb. semi-sweet chocolate
¼ cup Nutella

×××

Chop the chocolate into small pieces, and place in a medium bowl with the Nutella. In a pot over high heat scald the cream. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate and Nutella. Whisk rapidly until all the chocolate has melted and the mixture is a smooth, even colour. Cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Whip half the ganache until soft peaks form.

Assembly

Even out the tops of the cakes by slicing off any round dome that may have formed. Place the coffee layer on the base of the springform pan and spread the whipped ganache over just the top. Place the chocolate layer on top and use any remaining whipped ganache to to fill in the crack between the two layers. Clamp the collar of the springform pan around the top portion of the chocolate layer. Spread the mousse over the chocolate layer, inside the collar and refrigerate, covered, for a least three hours. Just before serving, remove the collar and pour the remaining ganache over the top, allowing it to spill down the sides.

×××

So... this cake. Wow. I made up the espresso cake recipe based on my chocolate cake recipe (number of times the chocolate cake recipe has been altered: 3), and the flavour came out pretty well, but if I made this again, I would leave out the espresso layer altogether. In that case, I would cut the chocolate cake in half and layer that with the whipped ganache. Moving on - the chocolate cake was delicious, as always and the hazelnut mousse... wow. It was just perfect and so amazingly tasty. It went perfectly well with the chocolate cake. I'm planning to do the chocolate cake with the hazelnut mousse for Anders' birthday coming up next month.
The cake was really delicious, and while it had many layers and lots of parts, it was nearly as heavy as I was expecting and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

So that's Christmas, in a nutshell. Coming up next, tortilla soup inspired by my friend Irina, and both peanut butter chocolate chip and apple cinnamon muffins. Delicious!

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Wild Blueberry Galette

I have discovered my new favourite pastry. It's much simpler than a pie, and to me, much prettier. It's a galette. I made one for the first time on Thursday for a dinner I was having at Anders' house with his family. I got the recipe from this foodblogger, who posted it on Bake! Bake! Bake! I mostly followed it, too, and it did not disappoint. Oh no, it didn't.

The filling was blessedly simple. I love a simple filling.

Wild blueberries, lemon juice and zest, sugar and cornstarch. Could it be any simpler?

The only other thing I needed was a pie crust. I went for my lovely olive oil recipe.

To get a nice, perfectly round crust to work with, I used the serving dish I planned to use as a cookie cutter and pressed it into the dough.

As I said, this is a simple recipe, and all I had to do with the filling was pour it into the centre of my crust.

And then fold up the edges to hold it all in. I tried to make my pleats as pretty as possible.

It's not hard to make a dessert look good when you're working with berries that look this delicious.


The galette baked on a piece of tin foil on top of a cookie sheet for about 30 or 35 minutes.

And came out looking perfectly scrumptious, if I do say so myself. And I do.

This dessert was enjoyed by all (nine of us!) later that evening.





I am I love with this recipe. I think it's a great alternative to pie, especially if you're only feeding a small crowd (which I wasn't, really, but it worked out, because we had THREE kinds of dessert). I found the lemon a little too strong, so I will definitely reduce that amount when I make this next time, and there will definitely be a next time. In fact, we have some soft peaches in the fridge that I might try in a galette next!
If you're one of those people who can't seem to get pie crusts right, whether it's because they always shrink in the oven, or putting them into the pie plate is simply a chore, try a galette! You won't be disappointed... and you'll probably be more relaxed!

Recipe

(Wild) Blueberry Galette

1 premade pie crust
1 pint fresh (wild) blueberries
zest of one lemon
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
brown sugar*, to taste (I think I used 1 ½ tablespoons)
egg wash

×××

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cover a cookie sheet with tinfoil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Roll out pie crust to form a large circle and place on the prepared cookie sheet. In a medium bowl, gently mix together blueberries, lemon zest and juice, cornstarch and sugar. Pour the filling onto the centre of the crust and fold and pleat the edges around the filling. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for approximately 30 to 35 minutes, or until edges are golden brown and filling bubbles. Allow to cool before removing to a serving plate. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

*The original recipe called for white sugar, but I like brown sugar better in a pastry.

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Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze

Remember how I said my chocolate cake recipe was versatile? I wasn't lying. Because this lemon cake recipe is a wild adaptation of that recipe. Well, maybe it's not wild, but it is an adaptation.

The first time I tried it I really neglected the wet to dry ratio and ended up with a lemon-flavoured pancake. A lemon-flavoured pancake that was not fully baked. And that explains why there aren't a lot of photos. I completely switched up the method when I made it the second time and didn't take photos the second time around.

The recipe starts with fresh lemons. Mmm.


I started by grating the zest off the lemons, and then juicing them. I think I used two lemon, but I squeezed them really well with the mighty juicer we have. It may take more if you're not using such a mighty juicer.

Then, I mixed together the dry ingredients, which consisted of flour, baking powder and soda, and sugar. To that, I added oil, lemon zest and vanilla.


I left the lemon juice out still, because it makes the baking soda react, and I didn't want that to happen until just before the batter hit the pan.


And then I poured it into my greased and floured pan.


After being in the oven for longer than I had planned (because I used an 8 inch pan, rather than a 9 inch pan like I was supposed to), the cake looked and smelled deliiiish.


Once it had cooled, a poured a simple lemon glaze over it.


And once that had set, I added a few curled pieces of zest to decorate.


I enjoyed this cake with my parents after we ate a delicious dinner of Pasta Fresca (coming soon to a blog near you).


Oh my gosh. This cake was so moist and perfectly lemony. It wasn't too sweet, and it was lovely and light. We loved it. It really was perfect. And delicious. And I want more, now that I've written this little devotional.

Recipe

Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze

2-2 ½ cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ - ¾ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

×××

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake pan, and dust lightly with flour. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into a bowl. Add the oil, lemon zest and vanilla and mix the batter with a fork or small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the lemon juice and stir quickly. The batter will foam slightly where the baking soda and the lemon juice are reacting. Stir just until the lemon juice is evenly distributed throughout the batter. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool before glazing or frosting.

Lemon Glaze

2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice, fresh
1 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)

×××

Sift the sugar into a bowl. Add the lemon juice (and zest, if using) and whisk until smooth. Pour over cooled cake.

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Orange Berry Muffins

My computer crashed and I lost this once already, so I'm annoyed, but the show must go on and you must see this recipe for muffins.
Even if my previous write up was far cleverer than this one will be.

Anyway, today is Canada Day! Yayyy, Happy Canada Day! Woo 141 years as a country. You go, second largest land mass in the world!
The thing is, I didn't get a long weekend, thanks to McMaster (and in part, the government) deciding we should work on Monday and have real Canada Day off. At first I was pretty annoyed about this whole thing, but all was forgiven when I stepped into the kitchen early this afternoon. And then, a series of thoughts went through my head: 1) Ooh, I'll try my hand at Brötchen again, with one of the three recipes I've been hoarding; 2) Man, this calls for one whole pound of flour? That's a lot, especially if it's not going to work out yet again. I'll try this roulade recipe I found a few days ago. 3) Whhhat? This calls for a lot of whipping cream. And gelatin? No problem, I'll try Quark, instead! 4) Oh yea, all the stores are closed and we don't keep Quark on hand... I'll just make cookies. 5) Oh, we don't have chocolate chips... okay, which of the over 20 recipes in my "To Try" folder do I have the ingredients for?

Turned out I had the ingredients for these bad boys. I originally got the recipe from Eat Me, Delicious, but of course, it was altered as I went along.

To be perfectly honest, I was reluctant to put in the orange zest. I hate zest in baking. Sacrelige, right? Sorry, but I hate it. It interferes with lovely moist cake or smooth filling, or whatever. I just don't like it.

But I don't have a zester, so I used the very fine side of a cheese grater. It turned the zest into mush, which is perfect by my standards.

Next, I took that same orange and cut it into quarters to juice it.

I love this juicer. It's so efficient. You should go get one.

The orange gave me about 1/2 cup of juice. I filled the measuring cup up to 1 cup with milk, then added two eggs, some honey and oil. I meant to add some vanilla, too, but I forgot. I was disappointed.

This looked so delicious that I forgot about the muffins and just drank this.







I'm totally lying.

I actually just whisked it all together until it looked uniform.

Now, this wasn't the first place I deviated from the recipe, but it was the first time I had a bit of a headscratcher. The recipe told me to rub the zest and the sugar together with my fingers. But I didn't use sugar. I used honey. And I had already put the honey in with the liquid ingredients. So I decided to put in an extra tablespoon of honey.


And mixed it until uniform.


Then I mixed in the flour and baking soda (it called for baking powder, too, but I was surprised to find we didn't have any), and then the liquid ingredients.


The recipe called for blueberries, and we did have some, but they're so much more expensive than in-season strawberries, so I threw those in, instead.

I had to fold it pretty gently because I picked out the softest ones, so as not to "waste" the nicest ones that can be eaten by themselves. Mmm.

And then I spooned the batter into a greased muffin tin.

I love this thing. My mum bought it for me after she saw me struggling to get cookie dough out of a 1/8 cup measure. It's perfect, because you can push whatever it is you're scooping out with the soft little silicon bit. You should probably go out and get one of these, too. It's good for scooping ice cream, too.



Fresh out of the oven, I was expecting that these would smell amazingly orange. But they didn't.



They still looked amazing.


Really. Amazing.

And how did they taste?


Pretty darn good! Not nearly enough orange flavour, but it was there. Next time, I would probably use two oranges, instead of just one. The strawberries are great, though! These little bursts of flavour and freshness. Delish.

And since I changed the recipe, here's my version.

Recipe

Orange Berry Muffins
1 orange*
Milk
2 large eggs
5 tablespoons honey
¼ cup olive oil
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½-2 cups berries – fresh or frozen (not thawed)

×××

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a muffin tin and place it on a baking sheet.
Pour the orange juice into a large glass measuring cup and top up to 1 cup with milk. Whisk in the eggs, oil and 4 tablespoons of the honey.
In a large bowl, mix the orange zest and the remaining tablespoon of honey. Whisk in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir just to blend. Gently mix in the berries and divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before turning out the muffins.
Makes about 15 standard-sized muffins.

*I recommend using 2 oranges, not just one. Also, add some vanilla!

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Pink lemonade cupcakes

Yesterday I made my attempt at pink lemonade cupcakes, adapting a recipe thebyrds posted some time ago on Bake! Bake! Bake!

First of all, I doubled the recipe to get 12 regular-sized cupcakes. I also changed some ingredient amounts to taste and omitted the food colouring, since the pink lemonade mix made the cupcakes a very pleasing pink on its own. I made my own variation of buttercream frosting, which I have begun to call sour buttercream frosting, and just added some pink lemonade concentrate.

I like the texture of these cupcakes a lot better than the rainbow ones, but they're still sort of dense. They're also not too terrible for you, which is always a bonus.

As much as I wanted to cut down the number of photos I was going to post for these, I liked so many of them. Plus it's a fairly short post, so deeeeeeal.


Naked, fresh out of the oven.


Frosting, waiting for the cupcakes to cool.


Decorated and deliiiish.







Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup granulated sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
4 egg whites
3/4 cup thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate
½ cup milk

×××

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with liners.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, egg whites and lemonade concentrate. Alternately whisk in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk, beating until just smooth.
Scoop batter into liners. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.

Pink Lemonade Buttercream Frosting

3/4 cup softened butter
1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons sour cream (4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup if it wasn't flavoured with pink lemonade)
2-3 tablespoons pink lemonade concentrate, thawed
Vanilla to taste

×××

Place all ingredients in a bowl and whip with an electric mixer on medium-low. The frosting tends to look slightly strange and lumpy for a while, but will smooth out nicely after a few minutes of whipping.

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