Orange Cranberry Cupcakes

Photo by Katie Sechrist

I was in a cooking rut, and my style had gone stale when I came across this gem in a cooking magazine.  Orange Cranberry Cupcakes...the perfect mixture of fall and winter fruits!  I'm a huge fan of citrus cupcakes (lemon and orange are my faves!) and I had a 5lb bag of frozen cranberries leftover from a failed Cranberry Lemon Loaf attempt.
How had my style gone stale?  Explain my rut, you say?  I'd been obsessed with finding and baking recipes that ship well in the mail ever since I opened my Etsy shop.  I've researched best storage practices, keeping food fresh, and what is perishable when left out of the fridge.  
I'd almost gotten to the point that I felt it was a waste of time to bake something that needed to be refrigerated, or that I couldn't divide up and mail to loved ones!  I spent 8 hours at my daughter's volleyball tournament pouring through cooking magazines, tearing out pages of  a 2-foot stack of old cooking magazines and I found this gem. 
I don't know what it was that called to me, but when I ripped this one out of the pages of People Magazine's October 24, 2016 issue I knew it was for me.  
I was going to put everything else on hold and bake myself these cupcakes for absolutely no reason.  No promotion, no dollar signs, no shipping, just batter-eating, beater-licking happiness.
And I was happy.

Orange Cranberry Cupcakes
BATTER: 1 1/2 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp sea salt 2/3 cup whole milk 2 Tbsp orange zest 1/2 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup sugar 1 large egg 2 large egg whites 1 cup fresh or unthawed frozen cranberries 1 Tbsp flour
FROSTING: 2 cup butter 1/4 tsp sea salt 6 cups powdered sugar 2 tsp whole milk 2 Tbsp orange zest 2 Tbsp orange juice 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Line muffin tin with 16-18 liners and fill any empty cups halfway with water.

In a medium bowl, combine 1st 4 ingredients for cake batter.

In a small saucepan, combine milk and orange zest and heat for about 4 minutes without boiling, stirring frequently.  Set aside to cool slightly, about 4 minutes.  Add vanilla.

In a mixer, beat butter and sugar until soft and fluffy.  Add egg and whites 1 at a time, incorporating after each addition.

Add flour and milk mixtures, alternating between each, starting and ending with flour.

Gently toss cranberries with flour in a small bowl, then stir gently into batter.

Fill cupcake tins 3/4 full and bake for 20 minutes.  Set aside to cool before frosting.
FROSTING TIP:  I like to heavily frost my cupcakes with bags and piping tips.  This typically uses quite a bit of frosting, so I double the original recipe. If you are using a knife or offset spatula to frost, you can halve this recipe.
In a mixer bowl, beat butter and salt at medium speed until soft and fluffy, about 5 minutes.  Reduce speed to lowest setting and slowly add powdered sugar, pausing to incorporate between every cup.  
Raise speed to medium-low and add milk, zest, juice, and vanilla.  Beat until combined, scraping down sides, until smooth and creamy.  Frost cupcakes.

Yield:  12-18 cupcakes Storage:  Refrigerate to preserve freshness, but this frosting is safe to leave on the counter. Eat at room temperature.
Recipe from People Magazine, Candace Nelson (Pastry Chef and founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes)