Orange Dream Cupcakes

We have so many things to celebrate right now at Double the Deliciousness!! 

That's why we're having an awesome giveaway today! 

We'll get to that later, but right now we want to show you what we've been up to...

Doesn't that just look divine??!!!  (Sorry it's a bad picture...forgot the camera so had to use the cell phone!  You can see them better if you click on the picture!) 

We love to have an excuse to bake to our hearts content, so whenever it's piano recital time we may just go a little overboard!  All these cupcakes were super delicious.  Here's just a little teaser of recipes to come...we made Death by Oreo Cupcakes, Island Coconut Cupcakes, Perfectly Lemon Cupcakes, Chocolate Chip and Mint Cupcakes (actually made by a great friend who is always so willing to help us out...thanks again Brittony!!), and last but not least Orange Dream Cupcakes, which is the recipe we're going to be sharing with you today!!

Orange Dream Cupcakes

PRINT RECIPE

1 cup (2 cubes) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

6 large eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon of pure orange extract

Zest of 2 oranges

3 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup  milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Place the sugar and orange zest into the bowl of your mixer and blend until moist and fragrant. (This is our absolute favorite part about these cupcakes...the smell is so darn good!!)  Add in butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and orange extracts.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter.  The best way I've found to do this is to use a cookie or ice cream scoop that holds about 2 tablespoons of dough or ice cream.  Just scoop out the batter and plop it into each liner.  It is the perfect size for cupcakes and they will all turn out uniform! 

Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with this TO DIE FOR cream cheese frosting! Really, it's that good!!

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 packages (8 oz.) of cream cheese, softened

4 tablespoon of butter, softened

2 tablespoon of shortening

2 teaspoon clear vanilla extract

1 teaspoon pure orange extract

3 cups confectioners sugar

Combine cream cheese, shortening and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until smooth, creamy and well blended.  Blend in the vanilla and orange extracts.  Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar until you reach the desired consistency. You may need a little more than 3 cups of sugar...I believe I ended up using close to 4 cups.  Now you can either pipe on the frosting or spread it on, and then enjoy!!

Now on to the giveaway!!  As we said at the beginning we have some things to celebrate! 

FIRST off (if you didn't notice or are new to our blog) is we got a NEW LOOK!!  This has been months in the making and we've learned lots in the process!! 

ALSO, we finally figured out how to make a Blog Button!!  Hallelujah!:) 

AND, we've joined the facebook scene.  There is now a facebook page for Double the Deliciousness. 

What big steps right??

So we really want to celebrate and since we have quite a few cupcake recipes to post and since we want you all to try them out, we thought some cupcake baking essentials would be perfect for our giveaway!  So, here's the loot:

We've been eyeing this cookbook for a few months now!  We think it's got some fabulous cupcake recipes in it that you can try out (along with all of our fabulous ones!:)). 

So now that you've got some recipes you're going to need some help with frosting those bad boys so they not only taste good but look good.  So next we have a Wilton 12 piece cupcake decorating set! (we have this same one and it sure comes in handy when frosting cupcakes!)

And last but not least you need a way to display your finished product.  I borrowed one of these for our recital and could not get over how stinkin' cute it was.  So here you go...a cupcake stand!  (Isn't it fun!?)

Now, you may ask...how do I win this sweet giveaway??  Let us tell you!:)  There are a few ways you can enter to win.  Each thing you do will give you a separate entry to win, so the more you do the better your chances!!  (Please leave a separate comment for each item...thanks!)

1. Post a comment!  Easy as that, whatever is on your mind!

2. Become a PUBLIC follower of Double the Deliciousness (if you already are just post a comment saying so...if not just click on the "follow" button on the right-hand side of our blog!)

3. Grab our button and display it on your blog! (also on the right side of the blog...just copy and paste the code to your blog!)

4. "Like" us on facebook.  (The link is on the right side of our blog as well.)
5. "Share" about the giveaway on your facebook status.

6. Do a post on your blog about the giveaway.

Giveaway will be going until Monday (April 18th) when we will post the winner!  Good luck to all of you, and thanks for being a part of our blog...we LOVE our readers!!