Hydrangeas Cupcakes- Vanilla Cupcakes

Its been a while that I posted a recipe here. Have been a lot busy as recently started a new job. It takes a little time to get into a routine especially if you've been a full time mom for the last three years. But I'm loving it. Its GOOD busy. My younger one gets to be at his school and daycare and interact with kids his age and I get some time away from the never ending household chores.

Last weekend we all went to the Nascar Event(car Racing) at Dover Delaware. Both my kids and my husband are great fans of Nascar. At my house you will hear nothing but Nascar conversations and friday nights and weekends they will religiously follow it on TV. Though each of them follow a different driver. That day none of their drivers won, but it was an interesting race and we all had a good time.

Also I happened to bake these vanilla cupackes over the weekend and I wanted to try my hand at decorating them with hydrangeas. These are my favorite flowers. They are just so beautiful and love their colors. I particularly love the bluish purple hydrangeas. Though I could'nt quite get that color for the icing.

  Ingredients :

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 eggs   
• 2/3 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup orange juice 

Preparation :

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degress C) and line muffin cups with paper liners. I have used mini muffin cups which will yield 24 mini cupcakes.
• In a bowl sieve together all purpose flour, baking powder and salt. Keep it aside.
• Beat butter and sugar using an electric mixer or a hand mixer until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add the Vanilla extract and mix it well.
• Now add the flour mixture and orange juice alternately in about three additions and mix it well.
• Fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 17-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool for about an hour and then decorate them with buttercream icing. I have used wilton tip #2D for my hydrangeas.

Recipe adapted from The joy of Baking.