Chocolate orange cupcakes

Page 231 - Chocolate orange cupcakes

"Definitely in the top three of recipes to date!"

I skipped ahead a little by making these.. they're actually on the last page. But my goodness were they worth it!

Adding a little orange to the sponge gave the cakes a beautiful smell when they came out of the oven. And the frosting is to die for - I could actually have eating the whole batch. Leigh ate four and the parents LOVED them too!

No improvements needed - I just need to make them again! I halved the recipe as I always do with cupcakes from this book, but for once I actually wish I'd made more!

How to make chocolate orange cupcakes

Ingredients:
70g unsalted butter
210g caster sugar
105g soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
255g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk

Recipe
1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)
2- Whisk the butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy
3- Beat in the eggs one at a time, follwed by vanilla and orange
4 - Sift together the remaining dry ingredients,and add 1/3 with 1/3 of the milk, and whisk. Repeat twice more. Makes ure it's all mixed in and smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely before adding frosting

How to make the chocolate frosting

Ingredients
600g icing sugar

60g cocoa powder
250g soft cream cheese, e.g. Philadelphia
100g unsalted butter
3 tbsp finely grated orange zest


1) Beat the icing sugar and butter until combined
2) Add the cream cheese and cocoa and whisk again
3) Spoon the icing on to the cupcakes and smooth with a palette knife, or pipe

Chocolate Cupcakes

Page 126 - Chocolate Cupcakes

"Such a versatile recipe"

I've made these cupcakes before out of the original Hummingbird book, but made these this time for a friend along with some lemon ones. As usual the recipe didn't let me down - they were so tasty! I especially like to icing from this recipe as it's really rich :-)

One thing - the recipe says this makes 12-16 cupcakes but I actually think it makes more than 20! So unless you do actually want to be eating chocolate cupcakes for the next month I suggest you half the recipe :-)

How to make chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
200g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk
2 large eggs

1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)
2- Whisk the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs
3- Mix the milk and eggs in a jug. Add 3/4 to dry mixture, mix and scrape from the sides. Add the remainder and mix until smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely before adding frosting

How to make the chocolate frosting

Ingredients
400g icing sugar

100g cocoa powder
160g unsalted butter
50ml whole milk


1) Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa until sandy
2) Gradually add the milk and whisk again
3) Spoon the icing on to the cupcakes and smooth with a palette knife

Chocolate and lemon cupcakes

Candy-Cane Cupcakes



Page 208 - Candy cane cupcakes

  "Vanilla cupcakes... With a twist"


I made these to take to a netball tournament last weekend - substituted the red colouring for green and left out the mint from the icing. Really easy and the green/white icing looked fab with our new kit.

I think they went down well with the girls and the cakes were good for energy - it's just a shame we didn't win...!

How to make candy-cane cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 large eggs

1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)
2- Whisk the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs
3- Mix milk, vanilla and eggs in a jug. Add 3/4 to dry mixture, mix and scape from the sides. Add the remainder and mix until smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely before adding frosting

How to make the candy-cane frosting

Ingredients
500g icing sugar
160g unsalted butter
4 tsp peppermint essence
50ml whole milk
2tsp food colouring
Transparent sugar for sprinkling

1) Beat the icing sugar, butter and peppermint until sandy
2) Gradually add the milk and whisk again
3) Divide mixture into two - add food colouring in to one batch
4) Fill piping bag with half coloured icing and half plain - side by side so they come out of the end like toothpaste
5) Sprinkle with transparent sugar

The Countrystyle netball girls with the cupcakes

The inspiration behind this blog

Starting from page 1 (page 10 technically) I'm going to bake every recipe from this book ------>

By the end, I'm hoping that:

#1 - Some of the recipes might have been quite tasty

#2 - I'll somehow be rich....

Let the baking begin :-)