50/50 Cupcakes: AKA Orange Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

As it started heating up here in Sonoma I was reminded of the 50/50 bars my Mom used to buy in a gigantic bag that seemed to take up half of our freezer. They are a perfect summer treat, orange sherbert on the outside and sweet vanilla ice cream on the inside. Now obviously a cupcake isn't going to be as refreshing as a popsicle (or is it?) but once I settle on a flavor combination there's no turning back. So I scoured the internet and was surprised to find quite a few listings for the very combination I was looking for. Sidenote- a ton of listings for Orange Vanilla but barely any for the Lemon Raspberry cupcakes I made a few months back. Strange, no?
After reading through a few posts, and their comments I settled on this delicious sounding recipe from www.chow.com. It sounded like just the recipe to bring my 50/50 cupcake to life.

Orange Vanilla Cupcakes
Yield: 24 Cupcakes (really!)

Ingredients for both the cupcakes and the frosting:

• 1½ cups self-rising flour
• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup orange juice (use a variety without pulp)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Oven @ 350F
To make the cupcakes:
In a small bowl, combine the flours and set aside. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and zest gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the orange juice and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

 

To make the icing:

 In a medium-size saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk until smooth. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes very thick and begins to bubble, 8 to 10 minutes. Make sure that you stir constantly, otherwise you'll get a weird milky film in your pan. Yuck

Cover with waxed paper placed directly on the surface, and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

 

At this point, this is the most high-maintenance frosting I've made yet and I'm hoping that it's going to be the best tasting.....

In a large bowl, on the medium-high speed of an electric mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating continuously, and mix until fluffy, for 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat well. Add the cooled milk mixture, and beat for 5 minutes, until very smooth and noticeably whiter in color. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes (no less and no longer—set a timer!). Use immediately to frost the cupcakes. The original recipe calls for shredded coconut as garnish at this point which I chose not to add.

The frosting did not mix together well, as you may be able to tell from the picture of the frosted cupcake above. After all the effort put into the frosting I was pretty disappointed with the results. The cupcake itself was fabulous but I will definitely be using a different frosting recipe if I make these in the future. All in all the usual taste testers (people at my day job) thought they tasted fine.