Orange Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Icing.

I generally like to find recipes for the ingredients that I already have instead of buying ingredients for a specific recipe, unless it's a special occasion or something I really want to try. I've been tempted by orange cupcakes for a while but usually I only have tiny tangerines which just wouldn't work. Therefore, I leapt at the chance to make them when I had some proper oranges.

Ingredients:

85g butter

85g caster sugar

1 egg

85g flour

25g ground almonds

1tsp vanilla extract

Juice and grated rind of 1 orange

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. 

2.Cream the butter and mix in the sugar.

3. Lightly beat the egg and then add to the butter and sugar.

4. Fold in the flour and ground almonds.

5. Add the vanilla extract, orange juice and grated rind and combine thoroughly.

6. Distribute the mixture between 12 cake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden.

This is where I got a little adventurous. Everyone knows how perfectly chocolate and orange go together *cough* Terry's Chocolate Orange *cough*. Melting chocolate and drizzling it on top was an option, but a little too safe for my liking. I decided to use this chocolate fudge icing recipe and was slightly mislead by the piped icing in the picture. I was under the impression that the consistency of it would be thick enough to pipe on but it most certainly was not. I followed the recipe exactly (in fact, I only used 70% of the milk otherwise it would've been a complete disaster) and it was quite runny.

I removed the cases from the cakes, dunked the base and sides of the cakes into the icing and put them upside down on the plate. I then left them to set in the fridge for a few hours before realising that if I turned the back the right way round then they look like cake cases made of chocolate!

You may or may not have noticed an increase in the quality of my photos in this post as I got a DSLR this week. It's the Nikon D5100 with the standard 18-55mm lens. So far I'm very impressed with it but I'm still learning what are the best settings/ways to use it so bare with me! I've found a variety of online resources to get the most out of my food photography but I found this guide from Sally's Baking Addiction particularly useful.

I'm also now on Google+! I've had it ever since it began but never understood it as I have no friends who use it. However, I have now discovered that if you set it up correctly then it's a fabulous way to find like-minded people as well as discover and share some wonderful recipes and blogs. I found Chef Dennis Littley's post on 'How to be a Good Plusser' exceptionally useful, as well as his various other posts about Google+. You'd be a fool not to jump on the bandwagon now!

Enjoy!

CakesforDorothy xoxo

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GUEST BLOGGER: The Mixing Bowl's Cookie Dough Cupcakes!

It's Monday here on Cakes for Dorothy so that means I get to introduce you to another blogger! She works in a cupcakery (which I would one day love to do, and possible own one but that's another story for another day) so all of her cakes are absolutely immaculate! Also, I am still looking to continue this every other Monday so if you are a blogger who is interested in guest blogging on here then feel free to email me on: cakesfordorothy@gmail.com, even if you are unsure what it's about. 

This is my first guest blog post so please bear with me – I don’t really know how it all works! I usually blog at mixingbowlmagic.blogspot.com – a similar blog to this one.

I work in a cupcakery and my colleague and I came up with the idea for this cupcake one Friday afternoon when we wanted a new ‘special’ for the weekend.  They are inspired by cookie dough ice cream, which is so popular that we knew a cupcake version would be a hit! They are now one of our staples in-store and a big seller so I thought they were the perfect choice to share with you all!

They take a bit longer to make than regular cupcakes as there are several elements but believe me, it’s worth the wait! As the dough is not cooked before eaten I use an egg free recipe. You can use the same mixture to make the mini cookie on top but I find them quite greasy and prefer to use a regular recipe.

I have tried to scale down the recipe to make about 18-24 cupcakes but you may have excess cookies or dough (I’m sure this won’t be too much of a problem!). How many cakes you end up with will obviously depend on the size of your cases/muffin trays but I find that no matter how many cakes you have, they never last long!

Vanilla sponge:

200g self-raising flour

200g caster sugar

200g margarine

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 160C. Cream the margarine and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla essence. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder until well mixed. Use an ice cream scoop to divide between cupcake cases or fill the cases two thirds full.

Bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla buttercream:

250g softened butter

800g icing sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla essence

Using an electric whisk or stand mixer beat the ingredients together until very light and fluffy. The get the best buttercream whip it up for 3-5 minutes. You should see the colour get lighter – a sign that it’s almost ready to be piped J

Egg-free cookie dough:

125g plain flour

100g brown sugar

56g caster sugar

85g softened butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

30ml milk

150g milk chocolate chunks

Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the vanilla and milk and then mix the flour until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Cookies:

125g butter

125g caster sugar

100g brown sugar

225 self-raising flour

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g milk chocolate chunks

(You will have some dough spare so why not bake some big cookies – just roll into balls, flatten slightly and then bake for 8 minutes at 180C)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugars. Once fluffy and well-mixed, beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour until you have a smooth dough.

Roll out half the dough into a big piece and transfer it onto a greased baking tray. Sprinkle the chocolate chunks onto the dough and press in. Bake for about 8 minutes. As soon as it comes out of the oven use a small round cutter to cut out the mini cookies before they cool.

The assembly job:

Using a small cutter or another device, remove the center of the cupcake. Fill with the cookie dough. Pipe the vanilla buttercream on top and finish with one of the mini cookies.

As you can see they are really quite easy and you end up with yummy cupcakes and some gooey choc chip cookies! If you do make these delights, I would love to see photos of your creations – send to mixingbowlmagic@hotmail.co.uk or tweet me at @Mixingbowlmagic. 

Don't forget to check out mixingbowlmagic.blogspot.com! Enjoy!

CakesforDorothy xoxo

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