Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I've had this recipe saved on my Pinterest for maybe 3 years now. I figured it was about time to try it out. Earlier this week I made some pink lemonade cupcakes for a work wedding party and was asked to bring some cupcakes to my department meeting tomorrow. With it being warm and 8.5 days away from summer vacation, another summer flavor was called for.

And who doesn't love a cold, sweet orange creamsicle on a hot day?

This pregnant baker sure does!

This is another doctored box recipe. I had debated going with totally from scratch, but I'm glad that I had this recipe because I got home later than expected tonight and got a late start. The box is changed up by replacing some of the water with orange juice and by adding a box of orange gelatin mix. The recipe below calls for swapping out 1/4 cup of water for orange juice, but I swapped out 1/2 a cup. I wanted the cupcakes to have the real orange flavor with the frosting having the "cream"sicle flavor. I actually have some orange cream flavoring oil, so it amped it up a bit.

When making the frosting, I added the vanilla extract before the powdered sugar. I also added 1 tablespoon of milk to soften it up a little bit. Then, I removed just over a cup of it for the filling and topping. After that, I added 2 tablespoons of orange juice, 1 teaspoon of orange zest, and a 1/2 teaspoon of the orange cream flavoring oil. Once that was combined, I played around with my gel food colors to get a bright, sort of neon-ish orange that does not show up in my photos. It's a solid bright orange and my pictures show it as a peachy pink. BOOOO! I used a mix of red, yellow, and peach colors.

These are light and fluffy, and the cream cheese adds a slight tartness that the creamsicle flavor needs. It was hard to only eat one sample one and to save the rest for tomorrow. The recipe below is my version of the cupcakes. For the original, follow the link.

Also, if you're curious about these flavor oils I use, they are candy flavoring oils that only need to be used in VERY small amounts for baking. I've never used more than half a teaspoon in a recipe I don't think. I order mine from Amazon, and I use LorAnn brand.

Enjoy!

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
slightly adapted from The Cake Blog

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
Eggs and oil as needed on the box
Orange juice *swap out half of the amount of water needed on the box for OJ
1 (3 oz.) package orange gelatin mix
1 teaspoon orange zest

For the frosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk
5 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons or orange juice
2 teaspoons orange zest
1/2 teaspoon orange or orange cream flavor oil (if using)
orange food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line two cupcakes tins with liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the dry cake mix and orange gelatin.
3. Add the eggs, oil, water and orange juice, and orange zest as called for on the box. Beat for 2 minutes until mixed and fluffy.
4. Fill liners 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan then move to wire racks to cool completely.
5. One cooled, cut out the center of each cupcake to make a little cone.
6. For the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and cream cheese.
7. Add the vanilla and add powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Mix until combined. Add the milk to soften it up just a bit. Remove just over 1 cup of white frosting and set aside in a separate bowl.
8. To the remaining frosting, add the orange juice, orange zest, and flavor oil. Beat to combine.
9. Add a couple of drops of food coloring and beat. Add more if you want a darker orange.
10. Using the white frosting, pipe some into the center of each cupcake. Save maybe a 1/3 cup for topping.
11. Using the orange frosting, pipe onto cupcakes however you'd like.
12. With the remaining white frosting pipe a little star, flower, or circle on top in the center to look like the inside of a creamsicle.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Tomorrow at work we are having a potluck celebration for 3 people in my department who are getting married this summer. I offered to bring cupcakes and decided to find a nice summery flavor to also celebrate that summer is upon us and school will be out soon. Pink Lemonade it was. This recipe actually used a box mix as a base, but it was changed up quite a bit, not using the directions on the box. I usually avoid box mixes unless they are very doctored like this one. I'll still count these as homemade enough, just minus having to use flour, sugar, and some sort of leavening agent. I also almost always opt out of using shortening-based frostings because they end up being such a pain to clean up. The are definitely nice and smooth and glossier than a buttercream, but shortening just gets on everything. The only reason I stuck with it is because my house was slightly humid, and in case it was warm in the school, shortening holds up better than buttercream in the heat.

The only thing I really changed in the recipe was instead of the 3/4 cup of water in the cake batter, I did 1/4 cup and a 1/2 cup of the thawed lemonade concentrate. It was just enough for a little hint of lemony tartness, but not overpowering. The lemon zest alone didn't quite cut it. Other than that I followed the recipe as is and they came out great! The frosting is a bit softer and glossier than my traditional buttercream that I like, but I knew that after a few hours the buttercream would soften up, and that just doesn't taste as good to me. The frosting is packed with more pink lemonade flavor than I expected. A lot of times I add extra flavoring because the vanilla extract and 7 cups of powdered sugar really mask any flavor added, but the lemonade really came through. I had some lemon extract on hand just in case, but never needed it. I also tried to find those lemon jelly candy fruit slices for decoration, but couldn't find any near me, so I stuck with the decorative straws for décor. Also, I used a little yellow food coloring in the cake instead of pink, so I could have the fun look of both the yellow and pink of the lemonade. Hope everyone enjoys these tomorrow! They are a great combination of sweet, fluffy cake and tart lemonade frosting.

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
slightly adapted from Real Mom Kitchen

For the cake:
1 box white cake mix
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate
3/4 cup oil
4 egg whites
3 or so drops yellow food coloring

For the frosting:
1 cup shortening
1 cup butter, room temperature (2 sticks)
1/2 cup thawed frozen pink lemonade concentrate
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
the rest of the zest from the lemon
6-7 cups powdered sugar
4 drops or so of pink food coloring

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 cupcake tins with liners.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the cake mix and pudding mix.
3. Add the sour cream, lemon zest, water, lemonade, oil and egg whites and beat on medium for about 2 minutes until smooth.
4. Add the food coloring and beat again until mixed in.
5. Divide between cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely.
6. For the frosting, beat the shortening and butter together.
7. Add the lemonade, vanilla, milk and lemon zest and beat together. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing on low speed until all is combined. Give it a good beating for 30 seconds at the end. Add the food coloring and beat until mixed in.
8. Frost cupcakes and decorate as you like!

Maple-Dijon Baked Chicken

I have 10.5 days of school left until summer break. It's a good feeling, but winding down the school year just brings an onslaught of wrapping everything up, which causes some stress. I somehow had some extra energy today, because not only did I make dinner tonight, but I made a batch of cupcakes this afternoon waiting to be frosted. There are 3 co-workers getting married this summer, so tomorrow after work we are having a little potluck get-together and I offered to bring some cupcakes. After I finish this post, I'm going to head back into the kitchen to finish up those cupcakes, so stay tuned for another post shortly.

The original title of this recipe is "The World's Best Chicken". I'm not so sure it warrants that title. It's great, and I will certainly make this again, but world's best? The chicken comes out nice and moist and the marinade/sauce gives it a really great flavor. The only issue I have with the sauce is that it sort of congeals when it bakes. Now, I know that sounds gross, who wants congealed sauce? But just the top of it does under it stays a creamy sort of mustard, so you can sort of smother it over your chicken and it's fine. It's easy to make, with nothing I didn't already have in my pantry. I have 4 different kinds of vinegar in my cabinet at all times, so if you aren't like me, you may need to grab some red wine vinegar for this. But Dijon mustard is pretty common, and who doesn't always have maple syrup? I left out the rosemary since I'm not a huge fan of it.

Maple-Dijon Baked Chicken
from Rachel Schultz

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 and grease or line a baking dish with foil. I still spray the foil with cooking spray.
2. Mix together the mustard, maple syrup, and vinegar.
3. Place the chicken in the baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the sauce on, spreading over the chicken to coat it.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, mine took about 38 minutes.
5. Serve with sides of your choice.

Sorry for the super terrible picture below. I made myself a plate before I remembered to snap a photo. But, you can see what I mean when I say the sauce congeals/thickens, since it slides off when you cut the chicken.

And I always slice my chicken to check for doneness. I just never trust myself enough to know that they're fully cooked. I'm kind of a freak about fully cooking chicken....

Baked "Deep Fried" Oreos

I may have found my pregnancy weakness. For a while I thought it was cheesecake but no. These are faster, cheaper, and easier than cheesecake. Cheesecake takes a bunch of ingredients, a lot of time to bake it, and then a lot of time to wait for it to refrigerate. Who has that amount of time to satisfy a craving?

Not I, said the preggo.

You know what doesn't take a lot of time, work, or ingredients? These baked "deep fried" Oreos. You need crescent rolls, Oreos, milk, and powdered sugar. About 10 minutes to make and 10 minutes to bake. OK, if you count preheating the oven that adds time, but I preheated it a little before I got to assembling them and it was no time at all.

Yeah, tell me you don't want these.

As I was assembling these delicious little confections of wonderfulness (new name for them?), Dan was emptying the dishwasher. He leaned over and asked why I was dipping the Oreos in milk before wrapping them in the dough. "To soften them a bit and give them some moisture as they bake so they're soft inside". "Oh, okay". Cut to his first bite... "I let my Oreos soak in milk when I eat them and they have never been this soft or amazing in my life". Hubby tells the truth. Good old Oreos and milk just won't cut it anymore. The warm, soft, buttery dough and the melt in your mouth Oreo cookie, all topped with some powdered sugar is sort of like eating a cookies 'n cream fried dough. But softer, and fluffier, and not fried in oil.

I had to take a few-minute pause in the middle of typing this just to go eat more. These came out of the oven 15 minutes and they're just about gone. As I eat these I think to myself, "Gestational diabetes, here I come..." My craving of sweets has been off the charts, which I'm not exactly a fan of. Before this little womb-raider came along, I never  sweets. It was a rare sight to see me eat a whole cupcake. But 12 of these Oreo goodies seemed to have disappeared...

The following is a recipe for one batch of these.

Which is not enough.

Baked "Deep Fried" Oreos
From Something Swanky

1 can crescent rolls (with or without perforations)
8 Oreo cookies
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat mat or parchment paper.
3. Open the crescent rolls but don't unroll the dough. Cut log in to 16 pieces. Don't worry about the lines or anything you're going to squish them.
4. Squish each piece into a round circle just larger than an Oreo.
5. Quickly dip an Oreo into the milk and place on a round of dough. Top with another round and seal the edges together. Place on the baking sheet.
6. Repeat with remaining cookies and bake for 10-12 minutes.
7. Top with some powdered sugar and eat!