Shredded Orange Cupcakes

Hi everybody! 🙂 I’m super excited to share with you guys a bright, tangy shredded orange cupcake recipe – a perfect way to kick off 2017! These moist cupcakes give off the most delicious orange scent, and the inside is just bursting with a strong zesty orange flavor!

Normally, I’m not a fan of orange  orange-flavored things. Orange candies? Nope. Orange gummy bears? No way. Orange soda? No. Something about the flavor just reminds me of medicine, and it’s also such a common flavor, it gets kinda boring. But I do love eating oranges. Weird, right? I just love the natural flavor of oranges, and if you ever come to Vietnam, be sure to try cam vắt, which roughly translates to squeezed oranges. It is essentially an orange juice, but using the species of oranges that are green on the outside instead. It’s so refreshing and tastes so delicious, it never fails to remind me that maybe orange isn’t so bad after all. 

As you can see, I couldn’t wait and already took a bite

After I tried these cupcakes, I fell in love. Because they’re doused in a tangy, citrus-y syrup, they stay moist and the inside tastes exactly like a fresh orange. Another added bonus, is that they’re super easy to make!

And, these cupcakes are giving me serious English-teatime vibes (apologies if I have offended anybody) – just imagine them on one of those cupcake stands in a fancy restaurant among all those cute cakes and itty bitty sandwiches!

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Makes 12

INGREDIENTS:

• 5/8 cup self raising flour *
• 3/8 cup caster sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• ¼ cup ground almonds
• 2oz orange juice (about 1 small/medium orange)
• Zest of 1 small/medium orange
• 85g butter

SYRUP:

• Juice of 1 orange
• 1/8 – ¼ cup sugar (depends on how sour your oranges are or how sour you like it)
• Rind of 1 orange

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 180◦C. Line muffin pan with 12 liners
• Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
• Add egg and beat again.
• Add in ground almonds, flour and orange zest and fold using a large metal spoon
• Add orange juice and fold
• Distribute batter evenly between the 12 paper cases
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and risen
• WHILE CUPCAKES ARE BAKING: Put orange juice, zest and sugar in a small saucepan and heat over medium high.
• Heat until sugar dissolves, and then simmer for 5 minutes
• When cupcakes are done, use a skewer to poke holes in the cupcakes
• Spoon the syrup (including the rind) over the cupcakes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Garnish with some sliced toasted almonds if desired

* * If you don’t have self-raising flour, simply measure out 5/8 cup of all-purpose flour, and take out 1 1/4 tsp of flour, replacing it with 1 1/4 tsp of baking powder **