Orangesicle Cupcakes

If you love the taste of a creamsicle than you will love these cupcakes. There are several versions of this recipe out on the web. I made these for a potluck dinner recently and everyone really liked them. They are not overly sweet.

Cupcakes

• 3 oz. package orange flavored gelatin (jello)
• 1 2 layer size white cake mix
• 1 small box of vanilla instant pudding and pie filling mix
• 1 1/4 C orange juice
• 4 eggs
• 1/3 C vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cupcake pan with liners (makes about 24 cupcakes).  Set aside 2 tsp. of the orange gelatin for frosting.
In a bowl mix together the remaining gelatin, cake mix, pudding mix, orange juice, eggs, oil and vanilla.
Fill muffin cups with batter – about 2/3 full.  Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cupcakes before frosting.


Frosting

• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tsp orange jello (reserved)
• 1 tsp. finely grated orange peel
• 6 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon orange extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• orange food coloring

Allow cream cheese and butter to stand at room temperature and soften. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, orange extract. orange zest, orange jello and vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar. Divide frosting into two bowls, add orange food coloring to one bowl.

A simple way to get beautiful, swirled frosting.

• Put the white frosting in one decorating bag, and the orange frosting in another.

• Then snip the tips off the ends, and place both bags inside another decorating bag with a coupler and large star tip (Wilton 1M) attached.

• Twist the top of your decorating bag to close it, and hold the twisted part between your thumb and first finger. Squeeze the bag until you see both colors coming out.

• Starting at the outside edge of your cupcake, make a spiral toward the center.
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Link to Recipe:Orangesicle Cupcakes

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Mix until you have a nice smooth batter.

Fill muffin cups with batter - approx. 2/3 full

Bake and remove from oven when a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Cool on a wired rack

Combine butter, cream cheese, orange extract, vanilla extract and grated orange peel

Gradually add the icing sugar. At this point you can add orange food colouring and  frost  or if you want the swirl effect than divide icing and only colour half and use the swirl technique (see above).