Fresh Orange Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream Frosting

Now what would a party be without a cupcake? So my blogoversary week long celebration continues today with a cupcake recipe. I absolutely love the recipe I have on my site for the lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream. So with my love for citrus lately when I saw a recipe over at Canela and Comino for fresh orange cupcakes I had to try it. I decided to top them of with my version of an orange buttercream frosting.
I was hoping for the crumb in the cake to be similar to the lemon cupcakes. However, this cupcakes was a little more like a muffin consistency. So I thought they were good, but not knock your socks off. I think the lemon cake has spoiled me now. I think I am going to try to take elements from the lemon cupcakes and elements from the orange cupcake and try to make a moister version. However, this cake was still great, I was just hoping for a moister cake than this gave. The orange buttercream frosting, however, turned out perfect.
Now for today’s giveaway.
When I make cupcakes I decorate them using The Best Ever Cupcake Icing Kit from Bake It Pretty. I love it and love their site. And for my blogoversary celebration Bake It Pretty will give one of you a $25 gift card to purchase whatever you would like from their site. I do though highly recommend The Best Ever Cupcake Icing Kit, but they have a lot of wonderful things to make whatever you bake “pretty” including cute liners.
So to enter today’s giveaway please visit the Bake It Pretty site and then come back here and leave a comment telling me what you would get from Bake It Pretty if you were the winner. You have until 10 pm (MST) tonight to enter. I will announce the winner in tomorrows post and notify the winner by email.
Here is what you need to make the
Fresh Orange Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream Frosting
- YELLOW CAKE MIX
- SUGAR
- ORANGE ZEST
- ORANGE JUICE
- CANOLA OIL
- VANILLA EXTRACT
- EGGS
- BUTTER
- POWDERED SUGAR

Fresh Orange Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream Frosting
Real Mom Kitchen
Ingredients
- 1 package of yellow cake mix
- ¼ cup of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of orange zest
- 1 cup of orange juice
- ½ cup of canola oil
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
Frosting:
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter, very soft
- 6-8 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4- ½ cup orange juice
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, sugar, and orange zest. Whisk to combine. Add orange juice, canola oil, vanilla extract and eggs. Blend with the mixer on low speed for one minute, then speed it up to medium and beat for 2 more minutes.
- Fill cupcake papers about 1/2 to 2/3 full. Bake at 350F until golden in color and a toothpick test comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes.
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- For the frosting: Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of sugar, then 1/4 cup of the juice and the zest. Beat until smooth and creamy.
- Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency (I added 6 cups total). Add more orange juice as needed.  Use and store at room temperature. (Don’t refrigerate and it will last in a covered container for about three days.)