August Cupcakes: Orange-Almond

[splowey]

A month or so ago, when I posted the recipe for the Cardamom Half-Dips, I mentioned the bakery that was across the street from the church I went to before I... well, stopped going to church.  This bakery was the Prolific Oven, and aside from the half-dipped cookies, the other two pastries that I particularly remember getting there were sticky buns, chocolate croissants, and orange-almond cake.

Now, chocolate croissants are a little beyond my pastry skills right now, or at the very least, they're significantly intimidating enough that I haven't tried to make any yet.  But orange-almond cake?  Especially in cupcake form?  I can do that.




I googled "orange almond cupcakes" yesterday, and came up with several recipes.  But they varied widely in terms of ingredients (ranging from 1 egg to 4 eggs for each cup of flour, and every one used a different source of orange flavor - i.e. zest, juice, extract, pulp, or some combination thereof), and they all had different icings (everything from a blood-orange-and-powdered-sugar icing to chocolate ganache).  None of these really matched what I remembered from the pro O's cake, which had a gentle blend of orange and almond in a medium-weight medium-moisture cake, and was covered in a fantastic orange cream-cheese frosting and coated with sliced almonds around the side.  So I ended up making up this recipe as I went, borrowing bits and pieces from about five different sources along the way.




In the end, I was really, really happy with the way these turned out, and people really seemed to enjoy them.  So I consider that a job well done.  If any of you would like to try them yourselves (... mom, I'm looking at you), here's the recipe :-)

Orange-Almond Cupcakes
(adapted from too many sources to cite, but in fond memory of the cake from the Pro O)

Makes 36 mini cupcakes (probably 12 standard)

Place

• two oranges

in a medium saucepan and cover with water; bring to a boil. Boil for 20 minutes, replace the water, and boil 20 minutes more. Remove oranges from boiling water and cool (you can immerse them in cold tap water to speed this up). Quarter the oranges and use a paring knife to separate the fruit from the peel. Place fruit into a food processor (or blender) and process until you have an even pulp.

Preheat oven to 325 F.

In a medium bowl, combine

• 1 c. + 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 c. almond meal (make this by running almonds through a food processor until they are finely ground. I used roasted almonds, but fresh should be fine too. You might want to make some extra to use for decorating the cupcakes).
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

In a separate bowl, cream together

• 1 stick (1/2 c.) butter
• 1 c. sugar

Add, and mix until well-blended:

• 1 egg
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine

• 1/2 cup orange pulp (roughly from 2 oranges)
• 2 TBSP milk

Alternately add the flour mixture and the orange pulp mixture to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, and stirring well between additions.

Line mini muffin tin with paper liners and fill each 3/4 full with batter. Bake 17 min at 325 F, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

For the Icing:

Beat

• 1 stick butter
• 8 oz cream cheese

Until well-combined.  Addl:

• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange extract

And mix well.  Add

• 3 c. powdered sugar

In small additions, beating until blended.

Frost cupcakes with cream-cheese icing. Roll edges of cupcakes in ground almonds. If desired, top with a bit of orange zest.




P.S.  I found this awesome cupcake carrier which makes it way easier to take these to work to share.  Technically it's supposed to hold 24 regular-size cupcakes in two levels, but it works pretty well for carrying minis too, as long as you don't mind putting them in the "in-between" spaces.  I managed to get 28 minis transported in just one layer of the carrier today, without a single frosting-smushing mishap.  Totally worth the price, especially given how often I bake things to take to work and share.

P.P.S. Sorry for the white-balance issues in these photos.  I forgot to reset it this morning and apparently it was too far off for me to fix it in photoshop.  Oh well :-/

P.P.P.S. I think I'm finally done with the new blog layout.  This blog may be moving as early as Sunday... keep your eyes peeled.