On one of my gazillion trips to the Barnes and Noble along Rittenhouse Square, I squatted in the cookbook aisle, whipped out my Blackberry (I had forgotten a pen) and shorthanded a half dozen recipes that caught my eye. Among them, orange cupcakes, from the Martha Stewart Cupcakes tome that, as you may have presumably guessed, has beautiful food photos accompanying nearly every recipe.
Orange and white chocolate seemed a little weird to me, which is exactly why I picked it. When is the last time I made white chocolate anything? (I did, actually, try to melt some chips for the cognac truffles a way back, but failed miserably.)
Although I was hoping this would be more of a thick, fluffy icing, the glaze worked just fine. The cupcakes are sweet enough on their own (there’s an awful lot of sugar, juice and applesauce involved) and too much icing would have been overbearing. Just a slight flick of the wrist and–voila!–little squiggles of sweetness.
ORANGE CUPCAKES WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE GLAZE
(via Martha Stewart Cupcakes)
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, separated
For the glaze:
2 1/2 ounces white chocolate
3 tablespoons orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg whites
1 stick butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until light and fluffy and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, mix together remaining ingredients (including egg yolks.) Beat into dry mixture until combined. Fold in egg whites.
Pour into lined cupcake tray and bake for 20-25 minutes. Set aside to cool.
For the glaze, heat the orange juice and sugar in a small heavy-bottom pan, until sugar has dissolved. Place white chocolate in a double broiler and melt. In another small bowl, beat egg whites until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar syrup, followed by the white chocolate, butter and vanilla. Once smooth, pour into pastry bag (or just a plastic bag) and glaze cupcakes.
