Applesauce Raspberry Orange Muffins

This week I've been thinking muffins. We've been really lucky with the oranges we've been buying from the store lately, so I really wanted to do something that incorporated orange zest. We've also been trying to eat healthy lately, so I wanted to do something that used applesauce as a sweetener, rather than cups and cups of sugar. Finally, I had some of those raspberry preserves leftover, and I thought that would be tasty.

I found a recipe here that seemed easy enough to start with, and not difficult to alter. However, when I started making these I didn't realize that I didn't exactly have all the ingredients.
 

In theory, these are all the ingredients you need. It really helps to check how much applesauce you actually have. The original recipe calls for a cup and a half of applesauce, and I could just barely scrape out a whole cup. Other ingredients you may realize you really should add are brown sugar, powdered sugar, and milk.

Combine egg, applesauce, and oil. Whisk lightly until combined.

Realize that this would be a really good time to add the raspberry preserves. Add them too. 

 Realize that you've forgotten the orange zest, and add that too.

Mix up white powders, and be in awe of obligatory white-powder photo.

 

Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients.

Realize that, whoa, maybe that extra half cup of applesauce would have made a big difference because, man, that batter is way too dry. Frantically squeeze the juice of the orange that you zested into the batter. Breathe a sigh of relief as the batter starts to act more like muffin batters you've seen before. Taste a little of the batter. Realize that the juice from the orange has made the batter tangy, but also a little bitter.

 

 Come to terms with the fact that, yes, a tablespoon of brown sugar would really make the whole thing taste better.

  

Spoon the batter into muffin pan. Realize you forgot to preheat the oven to 375. Turn the oven on and bake the muffins for about 20-25 minutes.

Give the muffins a minute to cool down, and taste a piece. Realize that, yes, these taste healthy, and if you wanted muffins that taste healthy then these are perfect for you. But oh my goodness, you're just not in the mood for healthy tasting muffins right now. Whip up a quick glaze with about a quarter cup of powdered sugar and a splash of milk. Dunk the tops of the muffins in the glaze, and think happy thoughts.

 

 Oh, now really, doesn't that look better?

These are pretty good while they're still warm, so don't hesitate to eat while they're still a little steamy.

Goodness knows I didn't.

Recipe: Applesauce Raspberry Orange Muffins
Prep Time: 30-45 Minutes | Cook Time: 20-25 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 6

Ingredients

Muffins:

• 1 Egg
• 1 cup Applesauce
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• 3 1/2 tbsp Raspberry Preserves
• Zest of 1 Orange
• Juice of 1 Orange
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 3/4 tsp Baking Soda

Glaze: 

• 1/4 cup Powered Sugar
• 1 tsp (a splash) Milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F, and grease your muffin pan. (Or use muffin cups.)
2. Whisk together egg, applesauce, oil, preserves, zest, juice, and brown sugar.
3. Add mixture of flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
4. Spoon batter into muffin pan.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. Cool muffins on a rack until cool enough to pick up. (Less than five minutes.)
6. Mix powdered sugar and milk for glaze. Dunk muffins into glaze and allow a minute for glaze to set.
7. Eat while still warm. Or don't. I can't make you.

Fresh Strawberry Cake with Orange Glaze

It's Easter Sunday, and Kristin and I are in charge of bringing lots of baked goods over to her parents' place to feed the clan.  I made my Cloverleaf Rolls, Kristin made some really tasty lemon cookies, and we joined forces to make this cake.  It's a really delicious, moist vanilla cake with lots of fresh strawberries baked right in, and covered in a light, tangy orange glaze.  I think it will be a hit.

I'd be lying if I said this cake didn't involve some trials and tribulations.  Our first attempt was perfectly done on top after its bake, but not quite there underneath, and came out of the bundt pan in pieces.  It was tempting to give up after baking all day, but we tried some of the fallen-apart first attempt and - oh man, it was good.  We knew we had to do it again and get it right.  A longer bake at lower temperature did the trick - the second attempt came out beautiful, and that sad first cake made a great breakfast this morning.

Here's what you'll need!  For the cake: flour, sugar, vanilla-flavored greek yogurt, a pound of fresh strawberries, butter, eggs, baking soda, orange zest and juice, and salt.  Just two ingredients in the glaze: powdered sugar and a little more orange juice.

First, clean and finely chop the fresh strawberries.  You want the pieces to be small enough to distribute thoroughly throughout the batter and really flavor the whole cake.

Next, combine the dry ingredients - all but 1/4 cup of the flour, baking soda, and salt - in a mixing bowl.

I like getting some color in the background of the "bowl of white powder" shot.  I also liked stealing strawberry bites periodically as we baked - these were tasty!

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar, then beat in the three eggs, a tablespoon of orange juice, and the orange zest.

Alternate beating in dry ingredients and yogurt about 1/3 of each at a time.  Take care not to overmix, but do make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl - the flour mixture really likes to hide out around the edges.

Mix the last 1/4 cup with the fresh strawberries - this helps them to stay in place in the batter and keeps strawberry juice from inconsistently dying your cake pink.

Gently mix the floured strawberries into the batter.  Resist the urge to eat it with a spoon (though it is really tasty to lick from a mixing spoon).

Add the batter to a well-greased and floured bundt pan.  Be really, really certain not to skip the greasing/flouring - you don't want your cake to stick and fall apart like our first attempt.  It'll still be delicious, but it's truly sad to flip the cake and watch it go all to pieces.

Bake 75 minutes at 300 degrees until top of cake is golden brown and the edges have begun to pull away from the pan.  Test with a toothpick in a few spots and make sure that it comes out absolutely, 100% clean - if not, keep baking!

Let the cake cool a half-hour or so in the bundt before flipping and removing from the pan.

Whisk together 1 cup powdered confectioner's sugar with two tablespoons of fresh orange juice, and drizzle this glaze over the cake once it's completely cooled.  This adds a nice complex tartness to the sweetness of the cake itself.

This cake is perfectly tasty warm, cold, or room-temperature.  I just had some for breakfast, and am already looking forward to a slice for dessert after Easter dinner, too!

Recipe: Fresh Strawberry Cake with Orange Glaze
Prep Time: 20 Minutes | Cook Time: 75 Minutes (plus cooling) | Difficulty: Medium | Servings: 12 Slices

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups Flour (divided)
• 2 cups White Sugar
• 1 cup Butter
• 3 Eggs
• 8 oz Vanilla Greek Yogurt
• 3 tbsp Orange Juice (divided)
• Zest of 1 Orange
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 lb. Fresh Strawberries
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together sugar and softened butter with an electric mixer.  Beat in eggs, orange zest, and 1 tbsp orange juice.
4. Alternate beating in dry ingredients and yogurt.  Scrape sides of bowl carefully to ensure mixing.
5. Hull and finely chop fresh strawberries, then mix will remaining 1/4 cup flour.  Stir into batter.
6. Thoroughly grease and flour a bundt pan and pour in the batter.
7. Bake 75 minutes at 300 degrees until edges pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out 100% clean.
8. Cool 30 minutes in the pan, then turn out and remove from pan to finish cooling.
9. Whisk together powdered sugar and 2 tbsp Orange Juice into a glaze and drizzle over top of cake once completely cool.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Tangy Orange Frosting

Kristin had a bad day at work one day this week.  These things happen when you work with underprivileged kids - the good times are good, and the rough days can be really, really rough.  I like to try to do a little extra something for her on bad days - nothing huge, but sometimes a favorite dinner or a pint of Ben and Jerry's can be helpful.  Unfortunately, her bad day was the same day that I had an evening seminar, and so wouldn't see her until well after 9 PM.  This didn't give me much opportunity to do anything before she had to get to bed for the next day of work.

The next day, a windfall: my afternoon seminar was canceled.  My original plan had just been to come home and get some extra work done preparing to teach my own classes for the week.  Instead, somehow, the idea of baking popped into my head, so I stopped by the store for a couple of ingredients, and set about inventing a cupcake recipe.  Kristin definitely approved when she got home - they ended up pretty tasty!

This recipe is a hybrid of various others I've used in the past.  The cake itself is a fairly simple vanilla cake.  The real star, in my opinion, is the frosting.  Again, it's quite simple, but the orange zest adds a fantastic, tangy flavor to balance out the sweetness of the buttercream.  All in all, it's a refreshing little cupcake, and can be a great pick-me-up after a bad day, or an equally good just-because treat.

Here's what you'll need for the cake: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, baking powder, sour cream, and vanilla extract.  Nothing too shocking here.  The sour cream takes the place of some of what would otherwise be oil or butter, and helps to keep things moist and smooth.

First, soften or partially melt the butter.  No need for it to be liquid, just mixable.

Now add all of the dry ingredients straight to the melted butter.  Mix well until the texture is that of a boxed cake mix.

Now add the wet ingredients, and mix again until smooth.  This is a quite thick batter - you'll want a mixer of some sort.

Fill cupcake liners in a pair of muffin tins, and you're all set to bake.  Easy cake, no?  Bake at 350 for 22-25 minutes, until tops have just begun to turn golden-brown.

We'll see the finished cakes later, when it's time to frost them.  In the meantime, take advantage of the baking time to make your frosting.

The frosting is as easy as can be: just five ingredients: powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, orange juice, and orange zest.  The orange keeps it from being purely sweet, and adds some interest to what would otherwise be too "vanilla."

Yeah, I groaned too.

First, zest the oranges thoroughly - more zest is more flavor, here!  A microplane does the job nicely.  Melt the butter, too.

Next, just add everything to a large bowl and mix it together until it's smooth.  It's that easy.  You can add a bit more sugar to thicken things up if needed, or a bit more orange juice if it's too thick already.  In any case, throw it in the fridge for a short while until you're ready to cover the cakes - it'll be easier to spread without making a mess.

Speaking of those cupcakes, they should be done shortly after you've finished the frosting.  Pull them out, savor the aroma, and then let them cool completely.  Give them an hour or so.

Once they're cool, get to frosting!  Cover the cakes liberally with the frosting, and then find somebody to share them with.  Cupcakes are meant to be shared, you know.  Otherwise, you'll eat too many and end up with a bellyache.  Bring some to somebody who's had a tough day, or just ensure that their day goes better regardless.  Enjoy!

Recipe: Vanilla Cupcakes with Tangy Orange Frosting

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 25 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 2-dozen Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 cups White Sugar
• 1 cup unsalted Butter
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt

Frosting

• 3 cups Confectioner's Sugar
• 1/4 cup Orange Juice
• Zest of two Oranges (approx. 2-4 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Butter

Instructions

Cupcakes

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Line muffin tins with baking cups.

Heat butter in a large bowl until well softened.

Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until texture resembles a boxed cake mix.

Add sugar, sour cream, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla, and mix until well combined.  Batter will be thick.

Add batter to baking cups approximately 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees 22-25 minutes until cupcake tops have just begun to turn golden.  

Cool cupcakes completely (1 hour minimum) before frosting.

Frosting

In a large mixing bowl, melt butter completely.

Zest oranges with a microplane or grater.

Add powdered sugar, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla to melted butter.  Mix well 1-2 minutes until smooth.

Add additional sugar to thicken, or juice to thin as needed.

Refrigerate frosting until cupcakes are cooled to ease spreading.

Frost cupcakes when completely cooled.