So I've returned to my comfy little baking niche. After plundering my mom's texas muffin tins (and baking cups), I had been itching to make something with them. It's been a really long time since I've made anything "cakey" from scratch, so I thought it would be fun to do something citrusy with chocolate. I am a fan of both, and they typically work well together. The end result? I was happy. Fresh orange zest goes a long way.
More often than not, the actual CAKE part of cupcakes fall short of flavor, and end up being the "vehicles for frosting." I've encountered this at many of the cupcake joints I've tried here in SD. Thankfully, this recipe I found was very flavorful; citrusy, and the chocolate chips prevent the texture from becoming boring.
So I'll break this down into two parts: the cupcake batter and the frosting. I followed the cake batter very closely, but "ish"'d my frosting. I've been making frosting from scratch long enough to know what consistency is "right" for piping.
::gathering my raw materials::
The cupcake batter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg (I didn't have large eggs, so I used 2 mediums)
Finely grated zest of 1 navel orange
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/4 cups semisweet mini chocolate chips (7 1/2 oz)
The Muffin tin: I used a jumbo sized texas muffin tin which makes 6 cupcakes...the original recipe was for a regular sized 12-muffin tin.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then beat in egg, zest, and vanilla.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and mix into butter mixture at low speed, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Fold in 1/2 cup chips and divide batter among lined muffin cups.
Bake in middle of oven until pale golden and a tester comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Turn cupcakes out onto a rack to cool completely.
The Frosting
I really hate to put measurements to this...::sigh:: but for the sake of getting it down on paper (fine, a blog)...DISCLAIMER: measurements are FAR from exact.
8 oz dark chocolate broken up into small pieces (or chocolate chips)
1 cup vegetable shortening
10-16 oz confectioner's sugar (aka powdered sugar)
4 oz cream cheese
orange zest
In a double boiler (or your handy metal mixing bowl sitting on top of a pot with about 2 inches of boiling water) melt your chocolate.
Try not to let your boiling water touch the bottom of the bowl--you just want it hot enough to get the chocolate melted/smooth. Remove from heat and let cool.
Beat in your sugar first, then add the shortening. I added a little cream cheese for an exta kick. Finally, zest your orange right into the mixture, and stir together. Keep stirring until the consistency of your frosting is stiff enough, and not too runny. This is important for piping.
It's important to have a large piping tip for piping cupcakes. You can find a set of large ones at Smart n Final or any baking/cooking supply store. The bigger the tip, the easier it is to frost the cupcakes without having to worry about air bubbles in the bag ruining your piping work. Keep in mind to have plenty of icing though, as a lot of it stays within the large tip.
Fill a pastry bag with your frosting and pipe out onto your cupcake as desired. To keep a consistent pattern, start with a ring at the outer edge of the cupcake and then do a seond, inner ring until you finish your "spiral."
Once done, I garnished with more orange zest...just for color. However, you can get creative with dragees, piped flowers, etc.
And there you have it...chocolate chip orange cupcakes. = )
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