Busy Cooking: Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

I was searching around on the internet for new ideas for dinner yesterday, when I accidentally stumbled upon this recipe for Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes (who cares about dinner?!).  All of the sudden, I had to make these cupcakes (like NOW)- good thing tomorrow is Father's Day because guess what my husband is getting for dessert.  I had made another batch of cupcakes earlier in the week that were supposed to make it on the blog before these, but as I was icing them, my husband pointed out to me that I hadn't updated the blog in a while.  So, in case there's anyone out there like me that finds a recipe that sounds delish and HAS to make it right then, I felt the need to post this before anything else I had planned. With an orange flavored cake, filled with a marshmallow creme, and topped with an orange buttercream frosting, these taste eerily similar to the iced treat you may remember buying from the ice cream man when you were a kid (yesterday ;) ).  

There were a few different recipes that I found.  In the end, I chose the one from I Heart Cuppycakes blog and it was delicious.

Oven:  350'

Cupcakes:

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 TBSP orange zest

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 TBSP vanilla

3/4 cup heavy cream

Filling:  **I had so much left over, next time, I'd only use half this amount

1 7 oz jar marshmallow creme

1 stick (1/2 cup butter)

Frosting:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice 

1/4 tsp orange extract (I found this at Target)

1/4 tsp vanilla

4 cups confectioner's sugar

1) Preheat oven and prepare cupcake pans (I was able to make 9 large cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes).

2) Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, set aside.  In separate bowl, cream together sugar and butter.

3) Zest the orange, then juice it.  In a small bowl, mix together cream, orange juice, and vanilla.  Set aside.

4) Add the orange zest and eggs to the sugar/butter mixture.  

5) In alternate additions, add the flour mixture and cream/juice mixture to the batter.  Mix until just incorporated, scrape down sides, mix again.  Fill cupcake pans 1/2 - 2/3 full with batter.  Bake 17 minutes for mini cupcakes and 22 for large cupcakes (or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean).

For the filling, beat together the butter and marshmallow creme.  Pipe into the centers of cooled cupcakes.

For the frosting, combine butter, orange extract, vanilla, and 2 cups confectioner's sugar.  Add in the orange juice.  Slowly add the rest of the confectioner's sugar until you reach desired consistency.  

For the swirled color icing, I divided the frosting in half and colored half of it orange.  I put it in the frosting bag one spoonful at a time of each, one side white, one side orange:

Check this out:

My job at the ice cream shop freshman year of high school paid off for something:

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!