Dark Chocolate and Orange Cupcakes

In keeping with the “Father’s Day” theme, here is the recipe I made today to surprise my dad with. This recipe is great for lovers of those chocolate oranges you find at Christmas time and fans of citrus and chocolate in general. This is a very RICH recipe, that yields a near perfect baker’s dozen: I advise halving it if you are only entertaining a few.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 Tbsp Water (a bit more than 1/3 cup)
• 1/4 cup buttermilk or yogurt (no buttermilk?)
• 1 small beaten egg (or 4 Tbsp beaten egg)
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• generous pinch of salt
• 1 cup flour

Notes: Dark cocoa powder or normal cocoa powder both work. The recipe this was adapted from called for dark but when made with regular they were still very chocolately.

Frosting

• 4 Tbsp. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4 oz. (half a standard package) cream cheese or Neufchâtel cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp. orange extract
• zest from one small orange (optional, I did not use any)
• About 1 cup powdered sugar
• food coloring (optional)

Notes: Omit orange extract and zest for a basic cream cheese frosting you can use on anything! Or add your own flavors.

Directions:

Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Using a wire whisk, whisk in cocoa until smooth, then add water and whisk again until smooth and incorporated. Remove saucepan from heat and whisk in orange extract, sugar, buttermilk (or yogurt or substitute) and egg. Stir in soda, powder, salt and flour. Slightly lumpy batter is ok, I used the whisk to incorporate the dry ingredients and got a good smooth texture.

Line cupcake tins, I prefer to do 6 at a time but 12 should be fine. Fill tins about 3/4 full of batter so for 12 beautiful, rounded cupcakes, or a little less for 13-14 smaller cupcakes. Bake for 18-20 minutes o until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean

Frosting: Beat room temperature cream cheese and butter together in a medium mixing bowl until fluffy. Cold butter and cream cheese will not blend properly or easily.

Beat in orange extract and zest. If you are coloring your frosting add color now, folding it in until incorporated (I used probably 8-10 drops red and 3-4 yellow to get my color, just add it slowly and mix until you get one you like). Resist the urge to taste frosting at this point: it will taste reasonably bitter due to the extract.

Add the powdered sugar (aim for only 3/4 cup) 1/4 cup at a time; I folded mine in to get it wet THEN beat it together so it wouldn’t fly everywhere. Beat until fully incorporated. Taste it now, if it is too liquid or not sweet enough for your tastes, add the extra 1/4 cup (I did).

This should be enough to frost 13 cupcakes. The recipe this was based on said 6 cupcakes so I doubled it: big mistake, now I have a tub of it sitting in my fridge. I have therefore included the halved recipe. If you are doing a lot of baking or like a lot of frosting, double frosting recipe.

Make sure your cupcakes are COOL before frosting them! Otherwise your frosting won’t spread easily and will melt.

If you don’t want your frosting totally orange, try setting aside part of it after it’s been mixed and dying only that portion, then use it to accent your cupcakes.

Comments:

This is a very rich recipe! I used Neufchâtel cheese for the frosting as is my common cooking preference. If you haven’t tried Neufchâtel yet I highly advise it, it may be marked as “1/3 fat cream cheese” more prominently with the “Neufchâtel” marked less obviously. It is naturally less fatty than cream cheese and softer, so perfect for frosting. You can also substitute a margarine suited for baking for butter in both recipes.
Before frosting ALWAYS remove cupcakes from the tins to cool. Plop a dab of frosting in the center and rotate the cupcake slowly while you smooth the frosting with a knife or small rubber spatula for a neat frost job.