I’m baaaack!

I’ve been MIA recently, I know, what with spring coming and getting shit ready for a wedding I’m going to on Friday, but heres a recipe to tide you over until next week when (hopefully) I’ll be back on track with the baking. I’ve got an Oreo-something or other in the works… *wiggles eyebrows*… but for now lets get back to this.

Last week, while giving myself a semi-undershave (because the back bottom part of my hair grows awkwardly and irritatingly uneven and will NOT lay flat) I was contemplating cupcakes, because isn’t that what everyone does whilst shaving their head? And what I was contemplating was the fact that since its April now I am desperately in the need of some spring. The weather here in New York, while it hasn’t been cold during the day, has not been altogether warm and spring-y, save for one day when it reached 70° and a few days of 50° something weather dipping into 30°-something at night. So I was thinking of cupcakes that would put a turbo-boost in the feeling I’m starting to get… you know, that feeling you get when its just starting to be spring, and the weather is teasing you; giving you a 60° day here and there but yet its still not warm enough to be officially spring? Yep, that feeling.

Well I decided that fruity cupcakes were muy primavera. I had been wanting to make clementine cupcakes for months, but everytime I actually had clementines in the house I never actually made them. And now clementine season is over. So I decided to try tangerine cupcakes.

I named them ‘Tangerine Panic‘ after some absurd internet game where you have to dodge flying tangerines. Otherwise theres nothing really panicky about them. Unless you don’t like tangerines and you’re being forced to eat them…? But the actual recipe is courtesy of Food Network Canada and a show called ‘Sugar.’ I don’t watch it, being I live in New York and not Canada, but in searching for a recipe that didn’t sound too complex or muffin-like I found this one… thanks to Google!

(And in other news- its going to be 74° degrees by Friday here, which is exciting)

Cute little cupcake, though, isn’t it?

TANGERINE PANIC CUPCAKES

Makes 18.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:

• 2 ¼ cups pastry flour (I used regular flour and it was fine)
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp fine salt
• ¹/₃ cup canola oil
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 1 ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp freshly grated tangerine zest
• ¼ cup fresh tangerine juice
• 2 large eggs, separated

Icing:**

• ¹/₃ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3 ½ cups icing sugar (same as confectioner’s), sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp freshly grated tangerine zest
• 1 to 2 tbsp fresh tangerine juice

Directions:
Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. and line muffin tins with paper cups.
2. Sift flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add oil, buttermilk, vanilla and tangerine zest. Beat one minute with electric beaters. Add tangerine juice and egg yolks and beat another minute.
3. In a separate bowl and using cleaned beaters, whip egg whites until foamy. Gradually pour in remaining ½ cup sugar and whip until whites hold a stiff peak. Fold whites gently into batter and spoon into muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes or until cupcakes spring back when pressed. Allow to cool.

Icing:

1. For icing, beat butter until fluffy. On low speed beat in icing sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla, zest and tangerine juice. If icing is too thin, add a touch more icing sugar. Spread icing onto cupcakes, and serve.

**I used the frosting recipe given above and cut Sunkist fruit candies. To be honest, I didn’t like the “frosting” recipe. It made a marzipan like consistency, and I actually had to cut circles out and put them on top of the cupcakes, then smooth them. It wasn’t a frosting, really, it was more like a paste? Unless I did something wrong (*gasp* ME?!?!? NEVER!) So keep that in mind when trying it, if you decide to do so. I would probably just use plain vanilla buttercream next time, and maybe add just some tangerine zest.

All in all, these were good, not in my top 5, but maybe my top 10. Refreshing, not too sweet, not too fruity. But again, I prefer plain vanilla so how boring am I?