This chocolate orange cupcakes recipe was actually intended to be a baked doughnut recipe, but they turned out far too light and fluffy. Which lends itself perfectly to delicious cupcakes!
It uses vegetable oil instead of butter, so the cupcakes are super light and moist rather than crumbly.
As it uses dark chocolate and cocoa with dark brown sugar, the cupcakes are bitter-sweet and have a grown-up feel to them.
One handy tip is to over-beat the eggs as described in the recipe. This will give a nice light texture and better rise to the cupcake.
Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
Perfectly light and fluffy with bitter-sweet dark chocolate and orange... these are cupcakes for grown ups!
Ingredients
- 2 medium eggs
- 100 g dark brown soft sugar
- 1 orange zest and juice
- 125 ml vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons of natural yoghurt
- 200 g self raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 50 g good quality cocoa
- 80 g good quality dark chocolate
- 2 tablespoons double cream
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl add the eggs and sugar and whisk on a high level for approximately 2 minutes until the mixture becomes thick and pale.
- Into the egg and sugar mix, add the yoghurt, orange zest, half of the juice, and vegetable oil and mix well.
- In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa powder.
- Gradually fold the dry flour mix into the wet egg mix until all combined. Fold carefully and don't over-mix to keep the cupcakes light and fluffy.
- Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases, filling each around 2/3 full and bake in the oven at 170'C for 25 minutes. Check they are cooked through by placing a skewer in the middle. It should come out clean, if not cook for a further 5 minutes or so.
- For the ganache topping, break the chocolate into a bowl and heat gently over a pan of simmering water until melted.
- Add the rest of the orange juice and the cream and mix well until thick and glossy.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then dip each cupcake top carefully into the ganache and set to one side. Repeat so that each cupcake has 2 coatings of ganache and to finish sprinkle any remaining orange zest on top.
Glossy and gorgeously grown up flavours, i'm LOVING these! I make my chocolate fudge cake with corn oil and it gives it the loveliest of light textures. I'm going to give your recipe a whirl over the holidays as we've got visitors coming who will hoover them up!
Thanks so much! Yes adding oil just makes them so moist with less crumb doesn't it? I find they last longer too x
These look amazing! Chocolate Orange is my favourite flavour. I made some chocolate orange muffins for the kids this week but I want to make these grown up cupcakes for myself now! Great recipe, have yummed and pinned!
Thank you very much! It's my favourite cupcake recipe so far that's for sure x
I am absolutely loving the sound of these! Chocolate and orange go so very well together!
Thank you! They had rave reviews from friends too š
This looks gorgeous. I am going to try this out this weekend. And the way you have presented, just love it
Oh thank you so much! I really appreciate the compliment! Do let me know how you get on š xx
Wow! You can never go wrong with chocolate orange flavours. I love them, they look delicious!
Thanks! Yes it's a good combination. Went down really well with the builders we had in too, which is always a good sign! x