Cupcakes

St. Patrick’s Day: Lemon & Basil Cupcakes

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I was watching one of my favorite shows the other night called Unique Sweets on The Cooking Channel and I always get some of my best ideas from there! Trying to come up with a fun St. Patrick’s Day treat I saw a lady on this show make basil sugar and put it into a cupcake and I notice it had a slight tinge of green to it. As my wheels started spinning I remembered I had an orange cupcake that was so delicious and I could turn it into a lemon cupcake with basil with lemon frosting….so I did, and I am so happy about it!

St Patricks Day Lemon Basil CupcakeThese are honestly the perfect combo of sweet and savory, but before I get to the super easy recipe that I decided to start at 9pm on a saturday…..do any of you know the history behind St. Patricks Day? Cause I didn’t until now.

Straight from Wikipedia…

“Saint Patrick’s Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church. The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, as well as celebrating the heritage and culture of the Irish in general. Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, ceilithe, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. Christians also attend church services and the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol are lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday’s tradition of alcohol consumption.”

I just thought these historical facts were actually pretty cool. Anywho, on to the recipe…

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//Orange Cupcakes//

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The title does not do these cupcakes justice! I originally got the idea for these from a recipe on Pinterest http://bakingdom.com/2011/05/orange-cupcakes-with-brown-sugar-walnut-glaze-and-cream-cheese-frosting.html
I actually used their recipe when I first baked them for my brother in laws birthday, they were a hit! Since everyone loved them so much, I wanted to create my own version.

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Orange Dream Cupcakes
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 24
 
Ingredients
  • -Cupcake-

  • ½C + 3 Tbs butter, softened
  • 1C sugar
  • 1½C flour
  • 
2 large eggs
  • ½C fresh squeezed orange juice(about 1 lg orange)
  • ⅞C buttermilk
  • 1Tbs orange zest
  • 1tsp baking soda
  • 
1tsp baking powder
  • 
1/2tsp salt
  • -Glaze-

  • ¼C brown sugar, packed
  • 
1/8C fresh squeezed orange juice
  • 1 Tbs butter
  • ¼tsp orange zest
  • ¼tsp vanilla
  • -roast walnuts before making glaze and take about half of this out and cover walnuts, let sit until cooled.
  • -Frosting-

  • 8oz cream cheese, softened
  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 4-5C powdered sugar
  • 1tsp vanilla
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 and roast walnuts for about 10min. Once they are done set them aside.
  2. In medium size bowl mix dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add orange juice and zest. Take flour mixture and add to wet in increments alternating with buttermilk. Batter may be runny, that's ok! 
Prepare muffin pan for cupcakes. Bake at 350 for 18-20 min or until toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely.
  3. To make glaze, combine sugar, butter, orange juice and zest in sauce pan. Simmer until combined and until sauce becomes thick like syrup, stir in vanilla.
Take about half and cover roasted walnuts and lay out on parchment paper and let fully cool. Drizzle the rest over top of cooled cupcakes. Let cool.
  4. For frosting combine butter and cream cheese in stand mixer and mix until creamy. Add vanilla. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until desired thickness. 
Frost cupcakes and garnish with glazed walnut. Enjoy!!
  6. I entered my version of these cupcakes into the Tennessee State Fair and was amazed when I found out I had gotten my second blue ribbon and won first place for these cupcakes!! They are seriously so good! You will impress any party you bring these to!