Orange and Ginger Cupcakes with Orange Velvet Frosting

It’s my birthday! So of course, this post had to be about cake! Especially as the weather outside is awful. Even the cats have given up on dodging puddles and are sheltering inside.

I don’t bake a lot of sweet things as my husband doesn’t have a sweet tooth and I end up stuck with loads of cake or biscuits or whatever, and there’s only so much sugar one girl can eat. But as it’s a big birthday (there’s a ‘0’ at the end of this one!) I’ve invited some friends and family round to help me celebrate next weekend and these will keep nicely in the freezer until then. I’ll get them out to defrost on Friday and ice them on Saturday just before everyone arrives. I’m sure they will be expecting some sort of cake, but they probably wont be expecting this flavour combination.

These cupcakes are light, fluffy and very moreish. The orange flavour hits you first when you take a bite, then, as you eat, the ginger comes through as a lovely warming after thought.

Ready in 90 mins (Cake = 10 mins prep, 30 mins bake, 30 mins cooling. Frosting = 10 mins prep, 10 mins icing and decorating) – makes 16 cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 200g of caster sugar
• 300g of unsalted butter
• 200g of self raising flour
• 3 free range eggs
• The zest of one large orange (save some for decoration if you like)
• 2 teaspoons of stem ginger, chopped finely
• The juice of one large orange
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
• A good pinch of ground nutmeg

• 350g of sifted icing sugar

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 180c / 160c fan / gas mark 4.
• Put all the caster sugar and 200g of the butter into a large bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. – Pic 1
• Add the zest, stem ginger, ground ginger and nutmeg and mix well. – Pic 2
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of flour before and after each one.
• Beat in 2 tablespoons of the orange juice and the rest of the flour. – Pic 3
• Line a muffin tray with cupcake cases and spoon the mixture evenly into each one. Make sure you don’t fill right to the top, as the mixture will expand as it cooks. – Pic 4
• Bake for 25-30 mins, turning the tray around half way through to ensure an even bake.
• When they have risen, are a lovely golden brown colour and a skewer inserted into the middle of one comes out clean, they are ready. Move to a wire cooling rack and allow to completely cool. – Pic 5

• Melt the remaining butter.
• Put the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually add the remaining orange juice and melted butter a tablespoon at a time and mix really well. Don’t worry if you don’t use it all, I used about 8 tablespoons of each. – Pic 6
• Once the icing is a smooth, soft, thick consistency, spread or pipe onto your cupcakes and finish with a sprinkling of the left over orange zest. – Pic 7