Chocolate orange cupcakes

cakes2To celebrate their Great Chocolate Bake competition Dr Oetker kindly sent us a lovely parcel of goodies to bake with. I used some of the chocolate chunks to make some yummy chocolate chunk cookies with the kids but wanted to make some cupcakes so I could enter the competition myself. First prize is a ยฃ3000 holiday to New York! To enter you just need to upload a photo to the competition on their facebook page (link above) of a batch of cupcakes made using some Dr. Oetker chocolate. You can enter until October 17th (this Thursday). Of course if you felt super generous and voted for my cakes on theirย Facebook page I’d be eternally greatful ;).

I decided to make chocolate orange cupcakes with a white chocolate ganache topping and cointreau flavoured dark chocolate hearts for decoration.ย  I used Dr Oetker’s Fine cooks white cocolate and extra dark chocolate in this recipe. I was really happy to have an excuse to use the cupcake cases I won for my Alice in wonderland cupcakes back in August.

For the cupcakes:

125g castor sugar

125g unsalted butter (softened)

2 eggs beaten

2 tsp orange extract

100g self-raising flour

25g good quality cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)

zest of an orange

2 to 3 tablespoons whole milk

Preheat the oven to 180c

  • In a free standing mixer cream the butter and sugar
  • Add the orange extract to the egg and slowly add to the butter cream while still mixing. If needed add a spoonful or two of the flour to help it combine.
  • In a separate bowl mix together the cocoa powder and flour then add to the egg mix and mix until smooth.
  • Stir in 2/3 of the orange zest (keeping the rest for decoration)
  • Add the milk until the mixture drops easily from a spoon
  • Place in cupcake cases and bake at 180c for 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

For the white chocolate ganache:

75ml room temperature double cream

150g Dr Oetker Fine Cook’s White Chocolate

  • Melt the white chocolate in the microwave using 10 second bursts, stirring each time. The idea is to keep the chocolate as cool as possible while getting it to melt. Once the chocolate begins to melt simply continue to stir until all the remaining lumps are melted by the already melted chocolate.
  • Stir in the room temperature cream and keep stirring until the ganache thickens.
  • Leave to cool, stirring regularly until the ganache is thick enough to be piped. (or use a palate knife to spread evenly over the cakes.

For the Cointreau hearts

75g Dr Oetker Fine Cooks Extra Dark Chocolate

2 tablespoons Cointreau

Heart candy mould

  • Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave using 10 second bursts, stirring each time. The idea is to keep the chocolate as cool as possible while getting it to melt. Once the chocolate begins to melt simply continue to stir until all the remaining lumps are melted by the already melted chocolate.
  • Coat the heart shapes in a layer of the dark chocolate so that there is space for the filling but so that when they set they will have a nice shine.
  • Place in the fridge for 5 min to set (This is my method – chocolatiers would tell you not to put chocolate in the fridge because it can cause it to bloom/go patchy)
  • Mix the Cointreau with the remaining chocolate and once the first layer of chocolate has set fill the remaining space with the mix.
  • Put back in the fridge to set completely then turn out.

I used a large star nozzle to pipe the ganache onto the cupcakes, then sprinkled with the remaining orange zest and added the hearts on top.

 

 

 

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8 comments

    • admin says:

      Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚ I was really happy with them and it’s just like eating a chocolate orange. Normally I give everything to other people but even my husband’s struggling to get these!

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