Orange Dream Cupcakes

I'm sure you are all thinking "OMG, does she ever eat anything healthy?"  I promise I do, but I'm definitely not a health nut.  I enjoy junk food a little too much!  Ladies (and any gents that may be reading too!), get out your aprons because you will want to make these now!  Words cannot describe how delicious these cupcakes are.  Usually when I try to come up with something new there is a lot of swearing, slamming of cupboards and sometimes a few tears.  Somehow these dreamy little cakes came out just perfect!  Since I'm pretty terrible at frosting cupcakes I decided that a little mandarin orange wedge on the top would hide any weirdness and now they are perfect for serving!  I hope you enjoy these as much as my family did...we actually had to give some away because we couldn't trust ourselves with them in the house.

Here's the recipe:

Orange Dream Cupcakes with Orange Vanilla Buttercream

Orange Dream Cupcakes
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
7 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons orange extract
3 large eggs
1 box (small 4 1/2 servings) vanilla instant pudding mix

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a muffin pan with liners.

2. Beat all ingredients with an an electric mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.  Then beat on high for 3 minutes scraping bowl occasionally.

3. Pour into cupcake liners (I like to use an ice cream scoop) filling about 3/4 full and bake at 350 for 17-20 minutes.

Orange Vanilla Buttercream
1 lb. box of powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons orange extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick butter (softened)

1. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer, scraping bowl often.  I added a few drops of red and yellow food coloring to make my dreamy orange color.

Happy Baking!

Xo,
Melissa