Baked Tam: Orange cupcakes with chocolate filling...

so cute, no-one would ever guess that they are secretly filled...

..with chocolate! great party trick.
bursting with orange flavour and a light orange glaze icing, topped with dark orange chocolateness, these were so yummy, they have already been polished off!

used this cute chocolate mold i for some dark orange chocolate buttons!

Orange cupcakes with chocolate filling

This is simply orange cupcakes with chocolate filling and orange glaze. if youre in a hurry you can skip the filling and special chocolate molds. Although they do add a lot. this recipe was adapted and draws inspiration from cupcake number 7 here

Makes 8 medium cupcakes

1. In bowl Cream: ¾ cup white sugar and ¼ cup butter

2. Beat in 1 egg, fast (but not like a maniac! if you mix it in slow, the butter may start seperating and the mixture will curdle)

3. Mix (sifted) dry ingredients: 1 cup flour, ¾ tsp baking powder, Pinch salt

into wet alternating with 1/3 cup buttermilk

(don’t overmix mixture. Buttermilk substitute can be made by adding a tsp lemon juice to fresh milk and letting it stand for a bit)

4. Speedily (otherwise curdling will occur) mix in: ¼ cup fresh orange juice and 1 generous tbsp orange zest (aprox 1 small orange)

bake at 180’ for 15 min or until knife comes out clean

while these are cooling, you can make the...

Chocolate Buttons and bows

to get these very cute and very easy to make little chocolate goodies, you have to have the mold.

if you dont have this, never fear you can still have pretty cupcakes!

ideas:

-make cool shapes with the melted chocolate on baking paper, allow to harden,

then peel off and decorate your cupcakes.

- get leaves (wash them), coat one side with chocolate, allow to harden and peel off leaf,

you now have a chocolate leaf ! cool no? see, all is not lost, be creative!

so, for these molds i melted about 40gr dark chocolate (used 72% cocoa chocolate with orange bits! heaven)
the amount of choc you need will depend on your mold size.

1. put boiling water in a pot, put chocolate in a smaller pot/mug in water.

2. put chocolate in mug, stir until choc has melted completely.

3. spoon melted choc into molds clean edges of molds, allow choc to harden (put in fridge to speed up this process)

if youre planning on investing in molds, silicone molds are a dream, you can just pop the chocolate right out without any fuss or finger marks! silicone is the way

easy peasy!

now for the..

Chocolate filling

45 gr melted dark orange chocolate (used 72% cocoa with orange bits, yumm)

2 tbsp softened butter(not liquid butter!)

4 tbsp icing sugar

1. Melt chocolate, pour over butter, add icing sugar and mix it up. (It should be thick)

2. Put in an icing bag/gun with the plain round icing tip

click to enlarge image

they should be filled up like jam doughnuts!

Now the icing...

Orage glaze icing

cupcakes should be completely cold when you ice them.

125gr icing sugar

Enough freshly squeezed orange juice to make a thickish icing. (Sorry this is so vague but I don’t use exact measurements when I make icing.)

1. Start with a tablespoon of orange juice and add a little at a time to the icing sugar.

make the icing thicker than you think. Whatever you do, it should not be runny! It shouldn’t slop around the bowl yet not completely hard icing either, it should always slide back to a smooth surface.

2. When applying it to cupcake, take a loaded spoonful and drop it in the centre, resist the urge to spread it all around. Pick the cupcake up and tap the bottom, the icing should start spreading, with your teaspoon you can help it spread into a circle rather than drippy blob.

3. Plop cute chocolate piece on top or decorate with whatever sprinkle you like.