Dark Chocolate Orange Cupcakes topped with Orange Spice Buttercream and Candied Orange Peel
It has come to my attention that I need a new clock. My current one simply doesn’t have enough hours on it to allow me to do everything I want to do in a day. If anyone know of one that does, please tell me where they got it from. I need to find more time to blog and more time to bake!
The other night I came home from work and just had to make cupcakes. Of course, I didn’t go to the store, so I had to work with what I had in the pantry. I did find a recipe for dark chocolate cake on he back of my Hershey’s Cocoa box. That sounded good, but needed a little umph. I have noticed some food bloggers adding pudding to their cake mixes lately and thought, well why not try Jello. I had some orange flavored jello on hand and some orange marmalade. Mmmmm….dark chocolate and orange, how can I go wrong? Time to experiment.
Dark Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
(adapted from Hershey’s Kitchens)
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 pkg. (3 oz.) orange flavored Jello
- 1 jar (12 oz.) Smucker’s Sweet Orange Marmalade (reserve 3 tbsp. for frosting)
Cooking Directions
- Heat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, oil, vanilla, and orange marmalade. Beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Stir in boiling water and Jello (batter will be thin).
- Pour batter into prepared muffin tins using a small ladle. If you use a regular scoop like I did, you will make a mess.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
- Makes about 36 cupcakes.
OH. MY. GOD. The cupcakes came out delicious. They were moist and dark chocolaty, with a hint of orange. Just perfect symmetry. So next I had to come up with a frosting. Although, hubby and I did eat a few cupcakes just as they were. I thought about a cream cheese frosting, but hubby doesn’t like cream cheese, so I made a buttercream frosting instead, inspired by the orange in the cupcakes.
Orange Spice Buttercream
by The Sweet Chick
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 3 tbsp. reserves orange marmalade
- 1/4 tsp. pumpkin spice
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp. orange juice
- 2 tbsp. or more milk
Directions
- Using an electric or stand mixer, mix together butter, 3 tbsp. marmalade and pumpkin spice on high until well blended.
- Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until mixture is thick and creamy.
- Add orange juice and milk. If needed add more milk until consistency is fluffy.
I wanted to add just one more element to the cupcake, something fun and different. So I tried my hand at candied orange peels. I found a basic recipe online and went with it. They are actually not hard to make.
Candied Orange Peel
Ingredients
- 3 medium oranges
- 1/2 tbsp. salt
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup sugar (plus extra to roll peels in)
Cooking Directions
- Remove peel from oranges with an orange peeler or a spoon. Also remove most of the pith or white membrane from the peel.
- Add salt to 2 cups water. Soak peels in the salty water overnight.
- Drain and rinse peels thoroughly. In a pot, cover peels with cold water and heat to boiling. Then drain and repeat process 3 times to remove any bitter taste.
- Cut peels into strips. In a sauce pan, combine peel, sugar and 1/2 cup water. Heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Continue to cook until peel is translucent.
- When done, drain any extra liquid and roll peel in granulated sugar and allow to dry completely.
I chopped up the strips and added them to the tops of the cupcakes. Perfect texture and taste. Now I need to get back to looking for a new clock.
Better Than S’Mores Mini Cupcakes
I have been wanting to try Biscoff cupcakes for that past week. But I wanted to see what would happen if I tried to turn them into s’mores. The Biscoff is a bit sweeter than a graham cracker, but I though if I used a dark chocolate ganache to fill them, it might balance out the sweetness. What?? Me, make something less sweet?? Ask anyone who knows me and they would think something was wrong. But have no fear, sometimes it’s all worth it in the end. And these absolutely were. Topped with a marshmallow fluff frosting, these puppies came out better than expected, better than a s’mores!
Don’t mind my upside down flour bag. It had a hole in the bottom, so I had put it that way, otherwise that kitchen would look like a snowstorm had passed through.
| For the ganache filling |
filled cupcakes
At this point feel free to take any defect cupcake and pop it into your mouth. It is for quality control purposes only. Since it was late at night when I made the frosting, I forgot to take any pictures.
Of course before I went to bed I had to try one and gave one to my husband to try so I wouldn’t feel so guilty. Oh god, they were delicious. I am glad I made them bite size, the blend of tastes it just perfect. Unfortunately, that just means I will eat more.
Better Than S’Mores Mini Cupcakes
by The Sweet Chick
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes
Keywords: bake dessert biscoff marshmallow fluff chocolate ganache cupcake
Ingredients (24 mini cupcakes)
For the Biscoff Cupcakes
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup Biscoff spread
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Ganache Filling
- 12 ounces chocolate, chopped into small pieces (I used a 3.5oz bar of Lindt dark chocolate and about 3/4 of a 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips)
- 1 cup heavy cream
For the Marshmallow Fluff Frosting
- 1/2 stick butter, softened
- 2 cups marshmallow fluff
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon Wilton meringue powder
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
Instructions
For the Biscoff Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350º F and fill muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Place flour, sugar, salt and baking soda into a large bowl, mix to combine. Set aside.
In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, place oil, sour cream, Biscoff spread, eggs and vanilla into the bowl and mix on medium speed until well incorporated. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, about 30 seconds. Spoon batter into prepared mini cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake for 10-15 or until toothpick inserted in center comes out dry. Remove and let cool completely.
(For regular sized cupcakes, bake 18-22 minutes).
Recipe by healthyfoodforliving.com/recipes
For the Chocolate Ganache Filling
Place chocolate pieces in a large bowl.
Heat heavy cream on medium high until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until completely mixed and glossy.
Allow ganache to cool. The longer you allow the ganache to cool, the thicker it will set. You can place it in the fridge to cool faster. The ganache needs to be completely cooled before piping it in the cupcakes.
While the ganache is cooling cut a hole in the middle of each cupcake and scoop out the center (not all the way to the bottom). I used a vegetable peeler, but you can also try a apple corer.
With a frosting piping bag or a plastic freezer bag with tip cut off, pipe the ganache filling into each cupcake and place back in the fridge.
Recipe by https://www.healthyfoodforliving.com/recipes/
For the Marshmallow Fluff Frosting
In a stand up mixer or using a hand mixer, blend butter and marshmallow fluff until smooth.
Sift in confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder and beat on low speed.
Add vanilla and milk and increase speed to high. Beat for 1 minute.
Using a frosting piping bag and your favorite tip, frost each cupcake and place back in fridge to set.
Recipe by The Sweet Chick