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–+ servings
Chocolate cupcake with orange buttercream topped with dried orange slice

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Chocolate orange cupcake recipe. Soft choc-orange cupcakes topped with creamy chocolate and orange buttercream frosting.
5 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12 cupcakes

Equipment

  • Kitchen Scales (optional, but recommended)
  • 1 electric mixer (Hand held or stand mixer)
  • 1 x 12 case muffin tin
  • oven
  • 1 saucepan
  • Stovetop
  • 12 Cupcake Liners
  • 4 bowls
  • Sieve
  • Piping Bags and Piping Nozzles
  • Measuring Cups
  • Mixing Spoons

Ingredients
  

Chocolate and Orange Cupcakes

  • 110 ml Milk (just under 1/2 a cup)
  • 5 ml White Wine Vinager (1 teaspoon)
  • 110 grams All Purpose Flour (1 cup)
  • 30 grams Cocoa Powder (1/3 cup)
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Salt
  • 175 grams Caster Sugar (fine granulated sugar) (3/4 cups)
  • 60 ml Vegetable Oil (1/4 cups)
  • 1 whole Egg
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 120 ml Boiling Instant Coffee (1 teaspoon of instant coffee dissolved in 1/2 cup of boiling water)
  • 1 tablespoon Orange Zest

Chocolate Orange Buttercream

  • 180 grams Caster Sugar (1 cup)
  • 45 grams All Purpose Flour (1/3 cup)
  • 250 ml Orange Juice (1 cup)
  • 3/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 250 grams Unsalted Butter (1 cup)
  • 1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder

Instructions
 

Chocolate Orange cupcakes

  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
  • Combine milk and white wine vinegar in a jug and set aside to thicken.
  • Finely grate the zest of an orange and set aside.
  • Next, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, sugar & salt into a bowl and stir with a whisk to combine.
  • In a second bowl, add oil, eggs, thickened milk & vanilla extract. Mix together using either a whisk, an electric handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.
  • Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir together, then add the coffee and orange zest and mix well until completely combined.
  • Spoon the batter into your prepared cupcake liners and bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes or until cooked through (see notes).
  • Once baked, allow the cupcakes to cool in the muffin tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Orange Buttercream

  • Place the flour and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat. Stir with a whisk for 1-2 minutes to toast the flour.
  • Gradually add the orange juice while continuing to stir. Then stir in the vanilla extract and salt.
  • Continue to stir the mixture with your whisk until it thickens. The flour will cause the mixture to thicken as it cooks, and this will happen at the base of the pan first, so stirring the mixture will prevent it from burning at the base of the saucepan.
  • Once the pudding has thickened, pour it into a heatproof bowl and cover with cling film, so that the cling film is touching the pudding (like a skin).
  • Leave the pudding mixture to cool completely. You can speed up this process by putting it in the fridge or freezer, but make sure that the pudding is at room temperature before starting the next step.
  • Place your butter in a clean bowl and whip it using your electric mixer until it is pale and fluffy.
  • Add the orange pudding to the butter, one table spoon at a time. Mix the butter well after adding each tablespoon of pudding to make sure it is full incorporated before adding the next tablespoon.
  • Once all the pudding has been incorporated, divide the butter into two equal bowls. Stir your cocoa powder through 1 of the batches of buttercream.
  • Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle (see my the recipe notes and my post for how to achieve this two tone effect).
  • Pipe buttercream onto you cupcakes.
  • Decorate with sprinkles, chocolate pieces and dried orange slices.

Notes

Storage Recommendations
Always store your cupcakes in an airtight container.  Un-iced cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for a day or so.  Once you have added the choc orange buttercream to your cupcakes, store them in the fridge (they’ll last for 3-5 days) or the freezer (they’ll keep we’ll for up to 3 months). 
How to tell if your cupcakes are cooked
To check if your cupcakes are ready, insert a toothpick into the center of a cupcake. The cupcakes are cooked if the toothpick appears clean (or has just a few cooked crumbs on it) when it is removed from the cupcake.
How to create two tone buttercream
  • Divide the orange buttercream into 2 halves and stir cocoa powder through one half.
  • Lay a piece of glad wrap on the bench and spoon the plain orange buttercream onto it in a line.
  • Then repeat the process by spooning the cocoa orange buttercream in a line next to the orange frosting.
  • Use the goad wrap to roll the buttercream into a log. Cut the tip off the end, and insert the log of buttercream into a piping bag that has been fitted with an open star nozzle.
  • When you squeeze the bag, both colors should come out the nozzle.
Tried this recipe?Mention @Kylies_cakes_ or tag #theniftybaker!