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Home » Blog Archives » Dessert

Orange Cream Mini Cupcakes

February 18, 2024 Filed Under: Dessert

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Light orange sponge cupcakes with a light whipped frosting

I made these orange flavored mini cupcakes in the shape of a dragon for Chinese New Year (2024 is the year of the dragon!) The cupcakes are made of a light and fluffy orange flavored sponge cake, topped with a light orange-flavored whipped cream. (And lots of sprinkles!)

Sponge cake is great because it’s naturally lower-in-fat than other types of cake. This particular cupcake erecipe replaces much of the butter with Greek yogurt for added protein, too! Yeah, I did use heavy whipping cream, but the frosting is mostly made of air. I was inspired by those Chinatown bakery cream cakes with the creamy whipped cream-cheese frosting.

I’m sure these cupcakes would be great any way you choose to serve them, but since it was The Year of The Dragon, I chose to arrange mine like a little dragon. The dragon’s eyes are made of chocolate chips.

I used a piping bag and an extra large 1A round piping tip to pipe the frosting on.

To make larger standard-sized cupcakes, bake for 20 to 25 minutes instead of 15.
To make a full-sized cake with this recipe, bake for 35 to 40 minutes instead of 15.

Print Recipe

Orange Cream Mini Cupcakes

Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time15 minutes mins
Servings: 36
Calories: 88kcal

Equipment

  • 3 mini muffin tins
  • 36 mini muffin wrappers

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 1¾ cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoon melted margarine
  • 2 tablespoon canola oil (or other neutral oil)
  • 2 teaspoon orange zest (about 1 orange worth)
  • 1 tablespoon orange juice
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For the whipped cream frosting:

  • 2 ounces Neufchâtel cheese (at room temperature)
  • ¼ cup confectioner's sugar
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • food coloring, if desired (optional)

Instructions

  • It's really important to have room-temperature cream cheese, so I started on the frosting first. I beat together the Neufchâtel cheese, confectioner's sugar, orange zest and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer until well-blended. Then, I let the cream cheese mixture sit there while I worked on the next steps.
  • Pre-heat the oven to 350 °F . Line 3 mini cupcake tins with cupcake wrappers. ( I have 2 mini cupcake tins, so I baked in batches.)
  • In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking soda and salt.
  • In a second bowl, whisk together the nonfat Greek yogurt and sugar
  • Beat 1 egg into the yogurt mixture.
  • Whisk melted margarine, canola oil, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla extract into the yogurt mixture.
  • Pour the yogurt mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Use a spatula to combine, until the flour is completely mixed in.
  • Put 1 tablespoon of batter in each of the 36 cupcake wrappers. (I like to use a clean spoon to scrape the batter off of the measuring spoon and into the pan.)
  • Put the muffin pans in the oven to bake at 350 °F for about 15 minutes. Cupcakes are done when the tops are golden brown. The tops should spring back when lightly pressed down with a fingertip.
  • When cupcakes are done baking, remove them from the muffin pans and transfer to a cooling rack to cool.

Now it's time to make the whipped cream

  • You should already have your sugar, cream cheese, orange zest and vanilla extract beaten together from step #1.
  • Add 1 cup of heavy cream and beat on high speed until the cream whips up to form stiff peaks.
  • Transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag. I like to stand my piping bag upright in a tall drinking glass and spoon the whipped cream into it. This makes it easy to pipe the whipped cream onto the cupcakes.

More Dessert Recipes

  • Skim Milk Panna Cotta
  • Cranachan: A Simple Scottish Trifle
  • Raspberry Jelly Roll
  • Monster Trail Mix Cookies

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Hello, world!

I’ve always liked cooking, but we used to eat crap a lot — like buttery mashed potatoes, creamy sauces and rich desserts. Then, my husband had a heart attack at age 38, and it was a terrifying wake-up call! Not wanting to leave our children fatherless, we knew we had to make a major change. Following his heart attack, we needed to cut sodium, sugar, saturated fats (you know, most of our favorite foods!)
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