Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes!

So every month we have a birthday party for the kids in my classes who have a birthday at some point in that month. We used to do individual ones, but with a group of 16 thats a lot of birthdays!  The kids love cupcakes and they are much easier to deal with when serving a bunch of kids!  So this lately I have been dying to try and make Orange Creamsicle cupcakes. Well I usually start off with a basic cupcake recipe and edit from there, but, silly me used up all my flour and cake flour at my Cupcake Challenge a few weeks ago and didn't realize it! So I was forced to mess around with a vanilla cake mix. I was pretty nervous. I haven't done that! So here is my recipe for the Orange Vanilla Cupcakes and the Orange Buttercream Frosting!! It was a huuuuge hit and they were very yumm! Even my friend Stephanie who doesn't like Creamsicles liked these!

Orange Vanilla Cupcake

1 box vanilla cake mix
1/4 cup fresh orange juice (squeezed right from the orange!!)
1 tbsp or so of orange zest (I am bad with not measuring!)
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (not whipped)
a few drops of yellow and red food coloring to give a nice orange color - not required though

Just mix all together, then fill lined cupcake tins. I baked at 350 deg. F for about 15 min.  Pop them out to cool when they are done.

Orange Buttercream

1/4 cup fresh orange juice (squeezed right from the orange!!)
1 stick unsalted butter at room temp.
1/2 cup shortening - I used the white shortening sticks, not butter flavored
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
4 cups powder sugar

I creamed all the ingredients except the sugar first, then added the sugar about 1 cup at a time. You can add more sugar or less  depending on the consistency and the sweetness that you prefer. The frosting I did came out light and fluffy, which worked great for the Creamsicle feeling!

Hope you enjoy!!!

Bake on!!
Jean