Orange Blossom Cupcakes

I have been waiting to make some more of the flowery flavoured cupcakes and was intending to make the Apple Blossom cupcakes but have been struggling to source the apple iced tea powder and happened to pass by some Orange Blossom water in the Baking section in my local supermarket which was the next best thing.

We had two BBQ's to attend to this Saturday, one at my cousin's in aid of their recently landscaped garden and then onto my Parents-in-law after another in the early evening. Due to this I decided to make more than the usual 16 cupcakes so used one and half times the quantity of ingredients in the hope to make 8 extra cakes and round it up to 24. This would make enough to take some to each party and everybody to have one each. Made them up on Friday as we had to leave ours before lunchtime on Saturday.

Managed to figure out the extra measurements and got stuck into making up the batter. I was surprised at how unappealing the smell of the Orange blossom water was. I was expecting it to smell wonderful like the Rose water but it was a rather unpleasant fragrance. Started to worry if they finished product would smell the same, as this would put me off a tasting.

Spooning the batter into the 24 cases, I was a little cautious as to how much I put in, after the chocolate cupcake disaster I have lost my confidence in the ability to get the cakes all equal sized. Even though the measurements to get the extra cupcakes should have worked out perfectly, I actually managed to get 24 cupcakes and 12 mini cupcakes. I didn't want to wait for the cupcake trays to come out of the oven and cool down enough to reuse so decided to make a few mini ones and not ice them as Hubby can have them all to himself. He prefers them without icing as its too rich for his taste. Not sure why it didn't work out to just make the extra normal sized sponges. Could be down to my filling though.

Waiting for the cakes to cook, I kept an eye on them to make sure they didn't overspill like the chocolate ones the previous week. They started to rise above the casings and I did fret a bit that they would collapse. Need not have worried, they came out perfectly fine in the end.

It was getting late by this point as started to make the cakes and had to pause on their creation so see to my little one's dinner and bed and then sort myself and Hubby out in terms of tea too. I managed to whip up the icing, which tasted lovely and put my mind at rest as to the taste of the sponge after the off putting smell from the straight orange blossom water. Having frosted all the cupcakes, I left the finishing touches till the morning.

Since Saturdays are Hubby's turn to look after the little one through her routine, I had a little spare time before we had to head out so I got out my rolled fondant and cut out some little orange flowers with edible silver balls in the centre. Made two flowers to top each cupcake and thought they make it look fab. Packed them up and headed off out for the day of sun and fun.

The tasting didn't come until the second BBQ at the parents-in-law. My pregnant sister-in-law had the first one as the huge feast of meat and salad obviously didn't satisfy her appetite. I quickly followed suit and grabbed one too, and they were lovely. A different flavour all together than the Fizzy Orange cupcakes, it has a subtle orange taste but there was something else behind it too, that I can't quite put my finger one. The sister-in-law agreed and said the fondant flowers make the look great and also tasted scrummy too. A success and now cannot wait to try the Apple and Cherry Blossom variations, if I can track down those elusive ingredients.