Oranges and Lemons said the bells of St. Clements

This post has absolutely naff all to do with St. Clements and neither do the cupcakes I frosted today apart from the fact that they are orange and lemon flavoured!  Even though the weather isn't perfect, there is nothing wrong with having cirtussy summery cupcakes to celebrate a birthday with!

This weekend is my boyfriend's mum's 50th birthday party, so we came all the way down to Windsor from the North to celebrate - and make cupcakes for her.  She asked me last year to make these for her and in all honesty it doesn't seem two minutes ago since she did!

Using a plain vanilla cupcake - find the recipe here - of which there were 64 of them in total (excluding the one I dropped on the floor!!) I then iced 32 with orange butter cream frosting and the other 32 with lemon butter cream frosting...

- Orange butter cream frosting - enough for 32 -

Ingredients:
1100g icing sugar
340g Lurpak unsalted butter at room temperature
x1 tbsp orange flavouring
Grated zest of x2 oranges
x1 whole cap yellow colouring
x2 drops red colouring

Method:
1. Gently grate the orange zest using a fine cheese grater - similar to the one you would use to grate parmesan - in to a small bowl.
2. Add and mix all of the above ingredients together in a large bowl - the longer you whisk/hand mix it the fluffier and lighter it gets.
3. Spread on to your cakes with a flat knife, or using a piping bag, pipe the frosting on to your cupcake - I used a star shaped nozzle and piped the frosting on in a circular motion.

- Lemon butter cream frosting - enough for 32 -
Ingredients:
1100g icing sugar
340g Lurpak unsalted butter at room temperature
Juice of x1 lemon
Grated zest of x2 lemons
x2 caps of yellow colouring

Method:

1. Mix the lemon juice and 100g of icing sugar together in a small bowl.

2. Add and mix all of the above ingredients together in a large bowl - the longer you whisk/hand mix it the fluffier and lighter it gets.

3. Spread on to your cakes with a flat knife, or using a piping bag, pipe the frosting on to your cupcake - I used a star shaped nozzle and piped the frosting on in a circular motion.

Vanilla Fudge Cupcakes

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the length of time it has taken me to write a new post for you all! But I finally got round to baking this weekend I made these wonderful vanilla fudge cupcakes....

Using the standard vanilla cupcake recipe you then top the cupcake with a sugary, tasty vanilla fudge butter cream dusted with crumbled digestives and tasty vanilla fudge cubes.


- Vanilla Cupcakes -
5oz lurpak butter (at room temp)
6oz self-raising flour
6oz caster sugar
x3 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence


Method:

1. Add all the ingredients to a bowl or food processor and whisk/blend until it becomes a batter type texture.
2. Pour mixture into cupcake cases, 1/2 filling each case and cook on 180'C for 15-20mins.

- Vanilla Fudge Butter Cream - 

Ingredients: enough for 12 and a bit extra!

x1 packet of Silver Spoon vanilla fudge

250g standard icing sugar

80g butter (Lurpak at room temperature is the best)

x4 caps of semi-skimmed milk

100g Royal icing sugar

Method:

1. Place the whole packet of Silver Spoon vanilla fudge in a small bowl with 2 tsp of water and melt in the microwave.
2. Whilst the melted vanilla fudge is being left to cool, mix the butter, standard icing sugar and 2 caps of semi-skimmed milk.
3. Once the melted vanilla fudge has cooled add to the mixture and stir.  Then add the Royal icing sugar and 2 more caps of semi-skimmed milk.
4. Put the butter cream in to a frosting bag for piping, or simply spread on top of your cupcakes with a knife.
5. Dust your cakes with crushed digestives and gently push some vanilla cubes on top - because of the fudge, the butter cream sets quite quickly which is why the cubes need to be pushed in.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did, the butter cream is absolutely delicious and sets wonderfully.