Orange Velvet Autumn Cupcakes

Hey there! Today's post is all about autumn. I know Halloween is coming up, but autumn is about more than Halloween. It's about beautiful colors like orange, red, and yellow. It's about leaves falling and pumpkins. It's about hay rides and ...cupcakes. Ok, so maybe it's not about cupcakes, but today's post is!

One year for Christmas, Hubby bought me a bunch of different packages of sprinkles. One of the packages were Autumn Sprinkles. They were in these fun autumn colors, and I finally decided to use them. Because I was set on using sprinkles, I didn't want to do anything too fancy, so I made a small change to classic red velvet cupcakes - orange velvet.

So, I mentioned the sprinkles, but Hubby got me something else I used for these cupcakes - cupcake liners! The package of Halloween liners came with two designs. The design I used was orange and black with a spider on the bottom and black splotches on the sides. Again, I didn't want to take from the sprinkles with anything too showy. Oh, and shout out to TJMaxx for having Halloween stuff in December!

See how beautiful those festively Fall sprinkles look on that gorgeous white icing. I just love the contrast! Another added bonus of the sprinkles is the texture they give the cupcake. I made this cream cheese icing from scratch, and it was very smooth. The very first time I made it, though, something went wrong, and the granulated sugar just wouldn't blend well. It made the icing a little crunchy. Ok, that sounds bad. It wasn't crunchy, really, it just had a little texture that normally wouldn't be in cream cheese icing. Hubby loved it, though. He always begs me to make it like that again. Adding the sprinkles allowed me to give Hubby that extra crunch without ruining the icing.

Confession time! I actually made these cupcakes last year while on my blogging hiatus. After uploading the pictures this weekend, I decided that I would need to make some more of these soon. I mean, I'm drooling just looking at these pics! Good news, though - our church is having a fall festival at our pumpkin patch in a few weeks. I think these will be prefect for the cake walk. And, maybe I'll set a few aside for Hubby and me. :)

Well, there you have it. Orange Velvet Autumn Cupcakes. These would be prefect at your Halloween bash! Check out the recipe below and tell me what you think. Oh, and be sure to visit the sidebar to see some Fantastic Fall Posts!

Orange Velvet Autumn Cupcakes

by cupcake-n-bake

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 28-30 min

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Ingredients (24 cupcakes)

For the Cupcakes

• 1 2/3 cups of self-rising flour
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 2/3 tsp cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup of buttermilk
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
• 2/3 tsp vinegar
• 1 egg
• 2/3 tsp vanilla
• orange gel food coloring

For the Frosting

• 1 stick of butter
• 8oz of cream cheese
• 1 lb or 4 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• autumn sprinkles (orange, yellow, green, red, brown)

Instructions

For the cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350 F and prepare cupcake pans with autumn or Halloween inspired cupcake liners.

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together well.

Add eggs and oil to dry mixture, and beat until creamy.

Add the remaining ingredients, excluding the orange food coloring, to the mixture, and beat well until smooth.

Add the orange food coloring until you achieve the desired color. Remember, orange tends to be more vibrate after baking.

Bake in your preheated oven 28-30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For the Frosting

Prepare the frosting while the cupcakes are baking.

Begin by adding cream cheese and softened butter to a medium sized bowl and creaming them together.

Add the powdered sugar to the bowl in small increments, and continue to cream.

Finally, add the granulated sugar and vanilla. Cream until granulated sugar is well blended.

Allow cupcakes to cool, then frost using a piping tip and bag (size is your choice!)

Top frosted cupcakes with the desired amount of sprinkles.

Serve this delicious treat at your Halloween bash!

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