Orange and Cranberry Cupcakes

This is a my winning recipe - literally...so what did I win....you can find it out in the post. I made quite a few recipes last month for cupcakes, unfortunately did not capture them on camera. I was experimenting with dried fruits and nuts in cakes. I do not experiment often, either a dish works for me or I forget about it. Since most of my cake/ cup cake recipes on the blog, are pretty simple, like there is no science in them, plain flour flavored with vanilla, at max flour portions are replaced with some fruit or veggies. A friend asked me to make cakes using raisins which kind of did not work for me. I had cranberries with me.
Cranberries are very acidic in taste so, we need to combine it with some anti acidic ingredient like sugar. It works great in sauces when combined with oranges, so I added them as well. 
I have used Canola oil for making the cake, which I am hooked to since a year now. I also attended a seminar last month organised by www.canolaoil.org 
They also asked for submitting recipes made using canola oil, and this one fitted the bill. So much so, that I ended up winning the contest. 

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup Allpurpose flour

2 tspn corn flour

1 cup Canola Oil

1/2 cup dried cranberrys

1/2 cup orange juice (with pulp)

1/2 cup curd or buttermilk

1 cup castor sugar

1 tspn baking powder

1 pinch of baking soda

Method

1) Soak the cranberries in the canola oil for 20 min.

2) In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, sugar and beat it together.

3) Add the canola oil (strained from cranberries) to the buttermilk mixture and continue beating till a homogeneous mixture is formed

4) Next add the orange juice along with pulp and mix well.

5)Sift the flours and baking powder and soda together.

6) Add the flour mixture a spoon at a time and mix well, lightly folding in the batter.

7) Preheat the oven at 180c.

8) Pour the batter in cup cake tin covered with liners.

9) Bake for 15-18 min or until the skewer comes clean from the centre.

10) Serve with vanilla and orange zest icing 

 The prize hamper from Chef Ajay...at the CanolaOil.org. Some facts about canola oil, they are made from grapeseed  core. Originated in canada, it is as of today the oil with the least amount of transfats. It has a neutral taste and works well with all indian and baked dishes. Infact consuming the oil is healthy as well.