Temps got over 50 degrees on Saturday so my brain is now in full-on Spring mode. I cannot wait until all this snow is gone.
But, as quickly as the nice weather came, it vanished and we are back to 30’s. Wha wha whaaaa…. Oh well, I know warm weather will be here soon and then I will be complaining that it’s too hot.
I had the house to myself Saturday afternoon so what else is a girl to do? Bake! I perused my Pinterest page and my ever growing recipe binder. Nothing was speaking to me. Usually I have something in mind that I want to try out but my mind was blank. A gigantic black hole. I had baker’s block. (It’s a thing. Google it.)
I started weeding out things I didn’t want. Chocolate? Nope. Mint? Eh, not in the mood. With such nice weather I thought something light and fruity would be good. I had a couple Cara Cara oranges that I needed to use so that settled it. I made some orange cupcakes with an orange cream filling and Swiss Meringue Buttercream. They were delish!
I added orange zest and a bit of orange extract to my cake batter. For the filling I used butter, powdered sugar, mascarpone cheese, orange zest, orange juice, vanilla and a bit of heavy cream. Heaven.
I didn’t want the buttercream to be too heavy so I decided to leave it vanilla but really punch up the vanilla flavor with some vanilla bean paste. You can see the flecks in the frosting. So pretty!
On Sunday, the temps were already beginning their descent back to normal. And my taste for sweets has gone back to chocolate. I would throat punch someone for a chocolate cupcake with espresso buttercream right now.
Hopefully spring is in the air in your neck of the woods! Now, who wants to come clean out my closet!!
Ann
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