A friend of mine is having a baby shower in a couple of weeks and she asked me to make the cupcakes (along with the baby shower favors). No prob, I thought, but she is looking for orange and white colors so I had to figure out something cute and tasty. Aside from making white cupcakes with a boring store bought frosting tinted with orange food coloring, I decided to get creative. After a few internet searches, here is what I came up with…
Sunkist orange soda cupcakes with Vanilla buttercream frosting, and orange glass candy crumbles as the topping! Sounds like a mouth full, no? Well it was a sweet, sensational mouth full of creamy goodness! In reality, the copycat Sprinkles buttercream frosting is what took the {cup}cake! The sweet, buttery vanilla cream definitely stole the show, masking the orange flavor of the Sunkist in the actual cake. I really wanted to be able to taste the orange soda flavor, but it’s fine, the cupcakes still turned out marvelous 🙂
The recipes I used were very simple, try one or all if you wish! Enjoy 🙂
Sunkist Orange Soda Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 Box Yellow Cake Mix
Sunkist Orange Soda
Ingredients Listed on Cake Box
Instead of trying to sift through various cupcake recipes, I opted for Pillsbury. Yes, I used a boxed cake. My time is precious, so this is the way I usually go! Feel free to make your cupcakes from scratch, but the Pillsbury Yellow Cake mix worked quite well for me 🙂
Prepare the cupcakes according to the directions given, substituting the water portion with Sunkist orange soda. This turns the batter a light orange color. I always add a few drops of vanilla for flavor, optional, though. Bake according to instructions and allow the cupcakes to cool. They should be a darker orange once they finish baking.
Sprinkles Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1⁄8 teaspoon salt
While your cupcakes are baking, whip up this delectably sweet frosting! If you have ever experienced the deliciousness that is Sprinkles cupcakes, you will want to try this recipe. It is pretty darn close to the flavor, and could curb my current addiction. Somebody posted it on Food.com, thank ya!
Combine the butter, sugar and salt and beat until well blended. I do not have a mixer, so if you are in the same boat, be sure that the butter is nice and soft (not melted). It’s a bit of a pain to mix, and mix, and MIX, nice workout though!
Add the milk and vanilla and mix well until thoroughly blended. This frosting recipe can easily cover 24 cupcakes if you spread it flat. If you are looking to mound or pipe the frosting on each cupcake with a pastry bag, you will need more and should double the recipe.
Orange Glass Candy Topping
Ingredients:
3 c. sugar
1 c. Sunkist Orange Soda
1 c. white corn syrup
1 tbsp. flavoring–extract (I used vanilla)
I didn’t know what I wanted to top the cupcakes with, but I knew that something orange was in order. I thought mini orange jelly slices, orange edible beads, orange M&M’s, even candy corn (Halloween?). I looked around and found a simple recipe for glass candy that I could use Sunkist orange soda with and crumble on top! It crunches and tastes just like rock candy.
Combine the sugar, orange soda and syrup into a pan, set it on the stove top burner and bring to a boil. If you have a candy thermometer, allow the temperature to reach 300 degrees, stirring constantly. If not, you can do like I did and let the mixture get to a nice rolling boil for a minute or two. Once the candy has reached it’s hard crack stage (at 300 degrees), quickly stir in the flavoring and immediately pour onto a greased cookie sheet. The mixture should harden, I put mine in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to speed up the process.
Once it’s hard all the way through, you can chip away at it with a knife or drop it on the floor to crack it. It should break just like glass. Be careful though, it can actually have sharp edges like glass does and cut your fingers or mouth. I made sure to break the glass candy up as much as I could before sprinkling over the cupcakes and giving them out to my kids.
The finished result: partially orangy buttercream deliciousness
I am totally using these orange cupcake liners next time! They are way too cute and will add more of the orange color to make the cupcakes stand out.
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