Hello everyone! I had a recipe to post last week, but never had time to take some pictures through the process--soo I re-made the recipe tonight to share with you all. I made these last week in a jar to send to my husband. One of his favorite things to eat is a chocolate orange. Anything that has the flavors chocolate and orange in it, he's trying it. I searched for weeks for a recipe worth trying and finally settled on one. The batter tastes absolutley amazing. It's hard to believe because there is no butter and are no eggs involved! That was what threw me off of the recipe because it's very rare you see one without those two key ingredients. It turned out though and you can actually taste the orange. I was surprised. The tops of the cupcakes came out a little hard both times but once you put some frosting on them, it really didn't matter. I've never zested anything before, and I don't own a zester. Thanks to youtube, it talked me through the process of zesting with a potato peeler. You just have to use a paring knife to scrape off the extra white pieces of skin off of the orange. After you do that, you just chop the peels up into very small pieces. The pictures I'm posting aren't as much as the whole recipe makes--I halfed it and got seven cupcakes out of it! So for a small family, I recommend doing that. For the frosting, I doubled the recipe. Hope you enjoy :)
Chocolate Orange Cupcake Ingredients:
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/2 cup cocoa powder
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
*1/4 tsp salt
* 3/4 cup orange juice (you can get 3/4 cup if you squeeze all of the juice out of the 3 oranges used for zesting)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 tbsp orange zest (I used three oranges to make sure I had enough zest for the frosting and cupcake)
* 1/2 cup cocoa powder
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 tsp baking powder
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
*1/4 tsp salt
* 3/4 cup orange juice (you can get 3/4 cup if you squeeze all of the juice out of the 3 oranges used for zesting)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 1 tbsp orange zest (I used three oranges to make sure I had enough zest for the frosting and cupcake)
Orange Zest Buttercream Ingredients:
* 1/4 cup butter, softened
* 2 cups confectioners sugar
* 1 teaspoon orange zest
* 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice (if you don't have enough from the oranges, you can just use your preference of orange juice)
NOTE: for an extra orange kick, add orange extract 1 teaspoon at a time until you have your desired taste
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Zest and juice oranges.
This is right after peeling the orange. notice the white--use a paring knife to slice it off
After peeling the white off
All chopped up
This is how much juice I got squeezing out the three oranges. Just enough for the cupcake batter!!
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together orange juice, vegetable oil, vanilla and orange zest.
4. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined and no streaks of flour remain.
5. Distribute batter evenly.
6. Bake for 18-22 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool cupcakes on a wire rack before frosting
Orange Zest Buttercream Directions:
1. Cream together zest, vanilla, orange juice, butter, and confectioners sugar. If the confectioners sugar isn't mixing well, add 1/4 cup butter until it is combined. I doubled the recipe and added 1/2 stick butter extra. For the extra orange kick, add orange food coloring!
THIS IS FROM LAST WEEK: CHOCOLATE ORANGE CUPCAKE IN A JAR:
