These Orange Clove Cupcakes are lightly aromatic, and hedonistic spice cake. It's comforting and eloquent with it's bold, in-your-face flavors. The orange cake has been laced with hints of freshly ground cloves to give it a bit of a bite. A vanilla buttercream acts as a simple backdrop to allow the real star flavors to shine. The candied orange peel has also been given a bit of raw ground clove as well, it's pungent and slightly bitter flavor creating sweet little pinpricks on your tongue. It's a delicious thing to bite into.
Makes 24 cupcakes / 350F oven
Ingredients[]
For the Cupcake[]
- 3 cups of flour
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of grated orange zest
- 5 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups of sugar
- 1 cup of vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup of orange juice (no pulp)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cloves
For the Vanilla Buttercream[]
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 4 cups of powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
For the cloved and Candied orange peel[]
- 2 oranges
- 1 tablespoon of salt
- 1 pinch of ground cloves
- 2 cups of sugar, plus some extra for rolling
Directions[]
For the cupcake[]
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, zest, ground cloves, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside.
- Place eggs and sugar in a mixer and beat on high for 30 seconds until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla and oil and mix until just combined.
- Add some of the dry ingredients and then the orange juice. Alternate the dry and wet ingredients, ending with the dry.
- Scoop into cupcake papers about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-22 minutes, rotating the pan after the first 15 minutes. Check with a cake tester or toothpick for doneness.
For the Vanilla Buttercream[]
- Cream the butter until soft.
- Add the sugar and then the milk and vanilla extract. Cream till soft. Spread on cooled cupcakes.
For the cloved and candied orange peel[]
- Zest the peel into long strips with a citrus zester. (You can cut off the zest as well with e a vegetable peeler, then cut into strips, just be sure to scrape off all of the white pith as it's nasty bitter.) Add salt and peel to 4 cups of water and let stand overnight.
- Drain and rinse. Place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat to boiling and then drain. Repeat 3 times (this is to remove any bitter taste).
- In sauce pan, combine peel, sugar and 1/2 cup water. Heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Continue to cook until peel is translucent. Drain any liquid.
- Place some granulated sugar and a pinch and roll peel in granulated sugar and ground cloves. Be sure to only use a small pinch of cloves, in large amounts by itself raw cloves can create a burning or numbing sensation on the tongue. (By the by never take a pinch of ground cloves and put it on your tongue; can you tell I learned something today?) You just want a very slight taste of it, and when combined with the sugar it's tamed and tasty. Allow to dry.