Frosted Choc Orange Cupcakes

I love orange cakes and I love chocolate cakes, so when I had some spare oranges lying around I decided I just had to make some of these choc orange cupcakes. Actually the recipe that I adapted was for a single square choc orange cake but I turned it into cupcakes instead!

Cupcakes seem a bit more special than just a slice of cake. I suppose it is because I used to enjoy lots of yummy cupcakes when I was a kid. More times than I can remember I used to come home from school and mum would have some of these yummy little cakes waiting for me and my brother. We used to love watching cartoons and snacking on home baked treats like cupcakes. My favourite were the butterfly ones – with whipped cream and jelly – yum!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe book that I have had for years. It is an Australian Woman’s Weekly Book called Cakes and Slices Cookbook. The original Frosted Choc Orange Cake recipe used a marbled frosting so I incorporated that into this recipe too. I have also always wanted to make some swirled frosting topped cupcakes!

While the marbled frosting effect might be a little bit fiddly the choc orange cupcakes could not be easier to make. All you have to do is put everything into the food processor and wiz it up for a couple of minutes and you’re ready to bake. You can also use a regular electric mixer if you like; just beat all the ingredients together until smooth. I wish all recipes were all as easy as that!

The orange flavour in these frosted cupcakes is quite strong so if you prefer you could leave the orange rind out of the frosting and just have a marbled chocolate effect. Also I used some dedicated cupcake pans that have been in our family for years. If you don’t have special cupcake pans you could use regular muffin pans – you would just get a few less cupcakes.

I think no matter what size pan you have, you have to try this choc orange cupcake recipe!

Frosted Choc Orange Cupcakes

If you love chocolate and orange flavours you have to try these delicious choc orange cupcakes. The whole family will love their cute swirled frosting.

Serves: 36

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

125g butter
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
3 eggs
1¾ cups (280g) self-raising flour
1⅓ cups (300g) caster sugar
½ cup (40g) cocoa
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup orange juice
¼ cup water

Frosting:

120g butter
2 tablespoons grated orange rind
3 cups (340g) icing sugar
4 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoon cocoa

Instructions

Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F) and line three cupcake tins (12 hole) with cupcake liners.
Place all ingredients into large food processor bowl with ‘S’ blade fitted.
Process for 1 -2 minutes or until cake batter is smooth.
Pour batter into cupcake liners, filling each liner about two thirds full.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool slightly in pan before removing to a wire rake.
Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

Beat butter and orange rind in small bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar and milk and then beat for a further minute.
Divide the frosting mixture into two halves and then stir the sifted cocoa into one half of the mixture.
Fit your desired nozzle to a piping bag (I used a star nozzle).
Then add the two frosting mixtures to your piping bag by putting the white frosting mix on one side of the bag and the chocolate frosting mix on the other side of the bag (it doesn’t matter if they mix a bit).
Pipe frosting onto cupcakes starting from the outside using an inward spiral motion.