Mini Orange Cakes: Perfect for Autumnal Celebrations
Zesty mini orange cakes that are simple to make and are sure to please old and young alike. Perfect for autumnal celebrations.
A couple of weeks ago, The Book Shop, here in Liskeard, had a Books Are My Bag party. This entailed a local author coming in to read to the kids, music, a living statue in the window, jugglers and more. The colour for the event was orange, so what could I do but make some mini orange cakes?
Perfect Cupcake Recipe
I’ve made cupcakes so many times now that I’ve come up with the perfect basic recipe which I mostly stick to. I adapt it according to the quantity I need and the flavours used. It produces a light spongy cake that’s never dry but holds together well. It’s less sweet than most cupcakes I’ve come across as I use less sugar than you might expect. That can only be a good thing.
Mini Orange Cakes
For these mini orange cakes, I used my much loved cardamom sugar for a subtle spicy boost. I also added lots of orange to produce zesty well flavoured cakes and topping. However, I had to make an exception to my usual rule of not using food colouring because orange was such a key part of the event. I also sprinkled on a little gold glitter to enhance the party atmosphere.
This recipe makes forty eight mini or twenty four regular sized cupcakes, although you can easily halve it to produce twenty four mini cakes or twelve regular sized ones.
As these little cakes are most definitely orange, they would be a great fit for any Halloween or even Bonfire Night celebrations you may have planned.
Other Orange Cake Recipes You Might Like
- Blueberry orange upside down cake via Family Friends Food
- Cardamom and orange chocolate cupcakes via Tin and Thyme
- Mini blood orange cakes via Tin and Thyme
- Not another bloody orange chocolate cake via Tin and Thyme
- Orange, poppy seed & white chocolate cake via Tin and Thyme
- Slow cooker orange, pistachio and honey cake via Baking Queen
- Spicy orange brownies via Tin and Thyme
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these orange mini cakes, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?
If you’d like more cupcake recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Orange Mini Cakes. PIN IT.
Mini Orange Cakes – The Recipe
Orange Mini Cakes
Ingredients
- 250 g unsalted butter
- 250 g golden caster sugar I used cardamom sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 300 g flour half wholemeal spelt, half plain white
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ½ oranges juice & zest
Orange Buttercream
- 150 g butter
- 225 g icing sugar
- ½ orange juice & zest
- a few drops of orange colouring optional
- gold glitter optional
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Grate in the zest from the oranges – ensuring ½ of one is left for the buttercream – and cream some more.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour to prevent curdling if necessary.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and soda and stir gently to combine.
- Squeeze in the orange juice (you may not need all of it, and stir gently again until combined. You are looking for a softish dropping consistency and may not need all of the juice
- Divide the mixture between 48 mini silicone muffin moulds or tins lined with cases. You may need to do this in batches if you don’t have enough moulds – I did it in two.
- Bake in the middle of the oven at 180℃ for 15-20 minutes until the cakes are well risen and firm to the touch.
- Allow to cool in the moulds for a couple of minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
Orange Buttercream
- Cream the butter and icing sugar together well until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the remaining orange zest.
- Add a little of the remaining orange juice and beat well, followed by a bit more. You don’t want to curdle the mixture, so be careful.
- Beat in the food colouring if you are using it, one drop at a time until you have the colour you are looking for.
- Spoon or pipe the mixture onto the cooled cakes and decorate with sprinkles or a little glitter if desired.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Linkies
Orange is the theme for this month’s Treat Petite, so I’m sending these little cakes off in the direction of CakeyBoi. As mentioned above, they’re great bakes for any autumnal festival, so I’m sending them off to Karen at Lavender and Lovage for Tea Time Treats as well.
Thanks so much for taking part in Treat Petite – these look so tasty and cute!
Thanks Stuart. I’ve got a real thing at the moment for cute cakes.
I love the look of these super cute bite sized treats! Thank you for entering them into Treat Petite.
Thanks Kat. I’m just a little bit obsessed by small cakes at the moment 🙂
I love orange cake and these look so cute. I bet they went down a storm!
Thanks Kate. Put it like this, the trays came back empty 🙂
These look so adorable. I love anything citrus!
Thanks Jemma, citrus is such a wonderful flavouring.
These look very perky! I love orange flavoured things.
Citrus is such a brilliant flavouring Sarah, so fresh and zingy.
Lovely cakes, and I am totally with you on not using too much food colouring!
Thanks Helen. It’s very not me, but sometimes you’ve just got to go with the flow 😉
Perfect for halloween, fireworks night or anytime really. I love the fact that they’re so tiny. GG
Haha, me too GG, it means you can have a 2nd one without feeling guilty 😉
The minichefs (erm, erm I) would love to whip this little bites up for bonfire night.
Haha, but of course Bintu 🙂
Orange butter cream sounds good to me. That’s great treat for a Sunday, or any day really…. Rx
Thanks Rosana. I agree, though they do make great cakes for a gathering.
They look so gorgeous with that beautifully piped buttercream.
Thank you Angie, I love that you said beautifully piped – made my day 🙂
Love the use of the orange zest in the buttercream. These make for a beautiful presentation.
Thank you very much Jessica. The zest really makes these cakes.
I love the combination of orange and cardamom! These are so lovely!
Thanks Mary, it’s one of my favourite combinations 🙂
These are yummy, almost feel like reaching out for one across the screen! And orange is a great choice with the changing colors of fall!
Thanks Prateek. Probably just as well we can’t just reach into the screen whenever we felt like it, imagine the temptation 🙂
perfect for my cupcakes & cocktails Halloween soiree!
Lovely idea Claudia. Thank you.
Yes I agree about the orange flavors. In a world overrun with chocolate it’s good to see some love being shown for a great flavor. The icing looks great. Nice photos.
Cheers….Mark
Thanks very much Mark. Orange is such a fresh singly flavour, it doesn’t really need much else.
They sound delicious and a bit of citrus always makes cakes lovely I find! Thanks for linking to my cake as well
You’re welcome Lucy. Citrus is one of the best cake flavours I reckon.
Yummy, I love orange flavours – I’d be tempted to make chocolate sponges as that combination is my favourite. I like the idea of spelt flour in the sponge recipe too
Thanks Tracy. I had wanted to make half of them as chocolate sponges, but I annoyingly ran out of time.
I’m so obsessed with orange cakes at the moment. I have to make these. I love a little cute cake too x
Thanks Sisley. Orange gives such a bright zesty flavour, I’m not surprised you like it.
They are too adorable, but I still couldn’t resist Choclette!
That’s the general idea Jac 😉
Very pretty! Orange cakes are always a big hit with me.
Thanks Alicia. I’m so used to using orange with chocolate, it was really nice to taste just orange.
These look lovely! Simple but delicious 🙂
Abel x
Thank you Annabel, they all disappeared anyway 🙂
Cardamom sugar?! Why have I not heard of this gorgeous ingredient before?! I can just imagine the taste of these little orange cakes paired with the cardamom. Delicious!
You obviously haven’t been reading my blog enough Sus. I use cardamom sugar a lot. Just keep a handful of cardamom pods in a jar of golden caster sugar – it’s wonderful.