I’ve baked this chocolate cupcake tons of times. I mean, tons of times, pairing it with lots of different frostings and flavors. It’s easy to make, with no butter or eggs and therefore no waiting-for-things-to-come-to-room-temperature time, and very easy to adapt for whatever you want it to be.
This week’s treat is a chocolate orange cupcake, one of my favorite combinations. I’m not crazy about the sprinkles that I added, but without them it just looked like a basic chocolate-chocolate cupcake and that didn’t seem fancy enough. Next time I’ll try to find one of those actual chocolate oranges you see at Christmas and use the little segments as a topper, or maybe those fancy chocolate orange jelly-type candies that also seem to remind me of Christmas. Stay tuned!
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- Zest of 1 small orange
For the frosting
- 12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon orange extract
- Zest of 1 small orange
- 2-3 teaspoons heavy cream
- Orange sprinkles, if desired
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; this recipe makes 13-15 cupcakes, depending on how much batter you place in each well.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Mix until well-blended, then make three wells for the wet ingredients.
Place vinegar, vanilla, and vegetable oil into the wells; add water and orange zest and mix until the batter is smooth. The mixture will bubble up slightly when you add the water, so just keep mixing until you get a smooth consistency in the batter, which will be fairly thin.
Using a 1/4 cup measure, fill cupcake wells about half full. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks. Cool completely before frosting.
To make frosting, beat butter, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder on low speed until the sugar is fully incorporated into the butter. Beat in vanilla extract, orange extract, and orange zest; add heavy cream 1 teaspoon at a time to get a smooth consistency.
Fit a large piping bag with a large open star tip (as always, I use the Wilton 1M) and pipe swirls of frosting onto cupcakes. Add sprinkles if you like; you could also garnish these with other things like candied orange peel if you wanted to get really creative. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
amy bakes in the 'burgh 