Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I've been a baking fool as of late. I made orange creamsicle cupcakes, that even I liked. Usually I just enjoy making and decorating the cupcakes, I leave the eating of them to others. This time however I ate my fair share! They're very simple to make, especially if you cheat like I did.


Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• zest from 2 large oranges
• juice from the 2 large oranges you just zested the life out of
• orange soda combined with the juice of the oranges until you have 1 and 1/2 cups of total liquid (I didn't have orange soda so I used Tangerine Lime from Trader Joe's - good stuff)
  
• 2 egg whites
• Mix the above bad boys together until smooth
• pour into a muffin tin and bake at 350 for about 18-20 minutes

While these fellas are baking make some frosting!

• 1 pound of warm butter (room temp is best, but hey, go ahead an nuke in the micro if you haven't planned ahead)
• 2 pounds of powdered sugar
• zest of one orange (not from above, you'll want a whole another orange)
• 2 ounces of Grand Marinier

Hope you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, as it makes this next part really easy. Mix butter on low and slowly add some of the sugar, once that's incorporated, add a little more sugar, keep on incorporating until it starts getting stiff. You can add the orange zest at any time, just keep the mixer on low. When the frosting starts getting stiff slowly add the Grand Mariner and keep mixing until it's very creamy. If you go crazy and add more liquid than you intended, just add more powdered sugar until it's all better.

Before frosting the cupcakes I injected them with vanilla pudding (I used instant pudding and just followed the directions on the box). The pudding's your secret weapon to really making these cupcakes outta this world. I have a Bismark tip that I use to fill the cupcakes with. The disposable clear piping bags work great for this, but if you run out of them like I did, you can resort to a large zip lock bag. It's a bit difficult to work with and I had to use tape to keep the tip firmly in place, but it did get the job done. Once you've filled the cupcakes frost and enjoy!