The Otto

If you live in Syracuse, you know how we feel about our basketball. On February 1st, Syracuse men's basketball made history. Not only did Boeheim and the SU team have their best start in school history (21-0), we beat our long-time "rivals" Duke! Even though we don't have a rivalry with them per say, there seems to be this long-standing fight between the fans of Syracuse and Duke. Who knows where these things come from or why.

The energy in the Dome that night was electric. I spent the majority of the 2 and a half hours (including the overtime!!!) on my feet, and I walked away with a sore throat and stinging hands. But hey, what are fans for?! It was an amazing game to be at, and will surely become a piece of Syracuse history.

A record crowd of 35,466!

This game was so inspiring that I came up with my new cupcake project for the weekend: The Otto. A chocolate orange cupcake with orange frosting and candied orange peels on top. Very orange and very Syracuse.

The Otto cupcake!

I have a go-to chocolate cake recipe that I started with. Then I added orange marmalade (almost a whole jar) which gave it a very orange flavor. It made the cakes moist and sticky. In true SU fashion, I had to rock the orange and blue liners.

The frosting is a basic buttercream frosting, with a few variations. I added a few tablespoons of the orange marmalade (remember, I said I put almost the whole jar into the batter) and orange juice. In retrospect, I probably added too much orange juice. The frosting didn't hold up well unless it was refrigerated. Next time, I will add less orange juice and maybe some milk, to reduce the acidity and add some creaminess. Live and learn!

The candied orange peels were fun to make! My friend Christine and I stripped the peel off the oranges and took as much of the white membrane off as possible. Then I soaked the peels in salt water overnight. The next day I boiled the peels 4 separate times in cold water, draining them in between each time. Then I added sugar and water back into the pan to boil 1 last time. I drained them, cut them into strips with a pizza cutter, and tossed them in sugar. The result was a gummy-like texture and an intense orange flavor.

mmm orange gummy peels

I piped frosting on top of the cakes, and draped the strips of candied orange peels over the top. I was very happy with the end result. It tasted delicious and looked great!

even Otto is a fan of The Otto!

This cupcake is all orange and all Syracuse.

A special thanks to my friend Sarah Heppell for the photos!