Orange Cupcakes from Vegancupcakes take over the world

I have been obsessed with vegan baking as you can tell and "Vegan cupcakes take over the world" in particular. Here is another recipe adapted from this wonderful book for wonderful tasting, dairy and egg-free cupcakes that are also good to our animal friends, and again it is in my current favourite flavour- Orange :)

Orange Cupcakes
Recipe source: These cupcakes are adapted from Vegan Cupcakes take over the world and are from here

Wet Ingredients

• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup plain soy milk/rice milk
• 1/2 cup orange juice (I used minute maid though freshly squeezed would be best)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp orange zest grated finely ( I don't like biting into pieces of orange skin so I grated very finely)

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 350 F
• Take the wet ingredients including the sugar, plus 1tbsp of flour in a bowl and mix until well combined. You could use a blender for this.
• In separate bowl sift remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three batches, mixing well after each addition, until the batter is smooth
• Fold in the orange zest and mix well to distribute it throughout the batter.
• Fill greased cupcake tins/cupcake liner 2/3 of the way. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The tops should feel spring y when touched.
• Cool completely before frosting else the frosting may get runny

Orange frosting (I haven't tried this)

• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1 tbsp finely grated orange zest (recipe suggests lemon zest)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream shortening and margarine until well combined.
Add confectioner's sugar in 1/2 cup additions.
After each addition of sugar, add a little orange juice and beat well with a handheld mixer on medium speed.
Add vanilla and beat for another 3-5 minutes until smooth, creamy and fluffy. Add zest at end and fold in.

Unfortunately I didn't have shortening and only had some butter which I wanted to use up as well since we can't have any due to my son's dairy allergy, so I used the following recipe instead:

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 4 tsb powdered sugar (Just put regular sugar in a blender and blend until fine and powdery)
• 3 tbs orange juice
• 1 tsp orange zest
• Beat the above with a hand held mixer until creamy.If it seems too runny or liquidy, add more sugar and beat again.

Verdict

The cupcakes were sent to my friend who recently went back to work after delivering a cutie pie baby only a few weeks before jellybean's arrival. She is an awesome baker so I was a little nervous especially since I was using a vegan recipe here, but she really liked them! She also said they were really moist which is probably because these are made with canola oil instead of butter and I've noticed oil based cakes have a wonderful texture.
I cut the top off a cereal box and covered it with pastel paper to put the cupcakes in. I put the frosting in a zip lock bag so that baby T's mom could just snip the end and pipe the frosting as needed. Next time I gift pack I will be more sophisticated but on short notice this was the only way I could think of to transport it without a mess.

Oh and if you're thinking why so many citrus recipes? Well, for one I love the flavour of citrus in baked goods and the other reason I must confess was to use up a huge box of clementines that I had bought a while back and which remind me to do something with them every time I open my fridge! Thankfully they are almost over but then I made a trip to Costco recently and on an impulse bought a huge bag of frozen berries. Prepare to see what I do with them soon!
These cupcakes are going to be sent off as an entry to the blogger bites challenge on One hot stove hosted by the one hot Nupur :)

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