Orange Poppy Seed Cupcakes With Buttercream Poppies Recipes

ORANGE-POPPY SEED CUPCAKES WITH BUTTERCREAM POPPIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 20 cups of two 12-cup muffin tins with baking cups. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Stir together milk and 1/4 cup orange juice.
• Beat butter, 1 1/4 cups sugar, and the orange zest with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Beat in poppy seeds.
• Divide batter among muffin tins (filling each cup two-thirds full). Bake until golden around the edges, 18 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, bring remaining 1/4 cup orange juice and remaining 1/4 cup sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Let stand until ready to use.
• Brush warm cupcakes with half the orange juice mixture. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack, and let cool for 30 minutes.
• Brush cupcakes again with remaining orange juice mixture, and let cool completely.
• Frost cupcakes with untinted buttercream. Top each with a buttercream poppy.

VANILLA-BUTTERCREAM FROSTING AND POPPIES

Steps:

• Heat sugar and egg whites in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water, whisking constantly, until sugar dissolves and mixture reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 2 minutes.
• Whisk with mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes. Whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 2 minutes more.
• Reduce speed to medium-low, and add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
• Switch to the paddle attachment, and raise speed to medium. Beat buttercream until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Pipe the poppies: Transfer one-quarter of the buttercream to a bowl (reserve remainder for frosting cupcakes), and tint with food coloring until you reach desired color for poppies. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a large petal tip. Cut out twenty 2-by-3-inch rectangles of parchment. Adhere 1 parchment rectangle to a flower nail with a dab of buttercream. Holding the piping bag at a 45-degree angle, pipe 1 petal. Pipe a second petal, overlapping the first by 1/2 to 3/4 inch. Making a tighter turn with the nail, overlap the second petal to pipe a third.
• Sprinkle poppy seeds in the centers of flowers to create the look of stamens. Gently remove parchment from nail, and transfer to a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining parchment and tinted buttercream. Refrigerate poppies for at least 2 hours.
• Gently remove poppies from parchment using an offset spatula. Place 1 on top of each cupcake.

ORANGE POPPY SEED CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°F Grease 10-inch bundt pan (or two small loaf pans).
• Cream butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Mix well after each addition.
• Fold in poppy seeds, vanilla and grated orange zest. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s).
• Set on middle rack of oven and bake for 50-60 minutes (less time if baked in loaf pans), or until edges shrink away slightly from sides of pan and cake tester inserted into center comes out clean. Let cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes before turning it out onto a cake rack.
• When cake has slightly cooled, prick holes in it 1 1/2 inches apart with a long toothpick and pour the *Orange glaze evenly over top. Serve warm. Disposable loaf pans work great for this, as the pans hold all the glaze and keep the cake moist.
• *Orange Glaze.
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice.
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar.
• Combine orange juice and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until a light syrup forms.

LEMON & POPPYSEED CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake or muffin cases. Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and poppy seeds together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then tip this into the dry ingredients with the melted butter. Mix together with a wooden spoon or whisk until lump-free, then divide between the cases. Bake for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean - the cakes will be quite pale on top still. Cool for 5 mins in the tin, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
• To ice, beat the softened butter until really soft in a large bowl, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice. Stir in enough food colouring for a pale lemon colour, then spoon the icing into a piping bag with a large star nozzle.
• Ice one cake at a time, holding the piping bag almost upright with the nozzle about 1cm from the surface of the cake. Pipe one spiral of icing around the edge, then pause to break the flow before moving the nozzle towards the centre slightly and piping a second, smaller spiral that continues until there are no gaps in the centre. Slightly 'dot' the nozzle into the icing as you stop squeezing to finish neatly. Repeat to cover all the cakes, then top with sugar decorations or scatter with sprinkles.