Cranberry Orange Cupcakes

(Rocco and the cupcake.... gotta give credit to 52 Cupcakes for the photo idea - my dog is NOT as trained as her dog)

I felt inspired to do some baking last night. I saw that one of my favorite cupcakeries on the west coast - Cupcake Royale - made a cran-orange cupcake for the holidays. I LOVE cran-orange muffins, and to put that in a cupcake form sounds delightful! I looked around for a recipe on the Internet but couldn't find one I liked so I kinda came up with my own version :) I made two kinds of frosting a cream cheese butter cream and a Swiss meringue - both of them I incorporated cranberries that I reduced down w/ water, sugar and some Grand Mariner. I have never made any of the European butter cream before and I want to find the one I like. I was not a fan of the Swiss Meringue - I would use it more as a filling in a cake or something I think. So far everyone kinda agrees and likes the cream cheese frosting the best... Going to take some to work today and see what they all think :)

My Cranberry Orange Cupcake

~Orange flavored cake w/ a little bit of orange zest and fresh cranberries
~Cranberry cream cheese frosting (the cranberries were reduced down with a little Grand Marnier)
~Topped with a sugared cranberry and sugared orange rind