Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange & Ginger Frosting
April 30th, 2006
There were some birthdays over the week for a few family members and I wanted to make some cupcakes to take to the dinner celebration. Seeing as it was the middle of the week, I didn’t have much time to fuss about with complicated recipes, so the recent post by Niki on one bowl creations gave me some inspiration to bake a few cupcakes without the fuss of using a recipe which requires creaming of butter and eggs. I remembered Martha Stewart’s ‘One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes as a good route for quick cupcakes, perfect for frosting as well seeing as they cool down faster than an 18 inch cake does. Even though I’ve had a few failures with her recipes before I thought I’d give this one a go. I figured that if it didn’t work I would make a trifle instead - always a good way to go with lacke lustre cakes.
(Side note: While I love looking through Martha Stewart’s magazines and websites I have found many of the recipes repetitive, which come out with failed results - even when I’ve followed them as instructed. I have to agree with Niki’s theory on how American recipes for baked goods are written; as opposed to British or Australian recipes with measurements given in weight and not volume. So often I find converting the measurements a good way to make sure things turn out well)
In the end I still changed the recipe around, ommiting the plain flour for self-raising and eliminating the baking soda as I am not a fan of the texture when you combine baking soda and powder. I used the much cherished Valrhona cocoa powder which provided a decadent and rich chocolate cake. So rich that when it came to deciding what type of frosting to make I decided for something light and delicate which wouldn’t overshadow the chocolate flavour. I went with an orange and ginger butter frosting as both flavours go well with chocolate; and in this instance the combination worked very well for an adult themed sweet treat. The use of fresh orange juice and grated ginger means there is a kick to the flavours. And with the small quantity of ginger the kick comes courtesy of a peep-toe shoe and nothing too sharp!
Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange & Ginger Frosting
Cupcakes
Adapted from Martha Stewart’s ‘One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes‘
Makes 18 cupcakes
100g unsweetened cocoa powder
210g of self raising flour
200g cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 large eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 180ºC
Line cupcake pans with liners; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cocoa, flour, sugar and baking powder. Add the eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla; mix batter until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about one-third full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; allow cool completely. Once cooled spread or pipe your choice of frosting and serve. Enjoy!
Frosting
175g of unsalted butter
300g of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
2 teaspoon of finely grated orange rind
1 teaspoon of finely grated ginger
2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a mixing bowl until it is fluffy. Gradually sift in the confectioners sugar, two tablespoon at a time. Mix until well combined. Do not rush this as it will turn out lumpy. Add orange juice, rind and ginger and vanilla and combine well. Add a little more orange juice if frosting is not spreadable.
Loving the links to shoes. Good work. Just when I thought visiting your site would get my mind off shoes and onto something different to covet…. BTW, those ceramic egg holders, they are defintely at Wheel and Barrow (maybe even on sale now post Easter).
April 30th, 2006 at 1:59 pmMmmmm, these look great, Saffy. Love the sound of that frosting.
April 30th, 2006 at 6:06 pmYum! I make a similar frosting with lime rind and juice. That would go well with the ginger too. (oh, and re Bloglines, no nothing comes up at all when you post and there’s a red (!) at the end of the tag for the feed - good luck fixing it)
May 1st, 2006 at 5:14 amDevine! I use Bloglines too but found I had to manually type in the feed address for it to pick up your posts properly. I hope this helps DrReb?
May 1st, 2006 at 1:40 pmyes yes cupcakes… the illegitimate child of the scone and a packet of chocolate chips. Very tasty Deb, but I’m really just here for the technical support this time :)
Rebecca… make sure you are subscribing to this address: htt://thefoodpalate.com/feed
This is what I subscribe to in Bloglines and it comes up fine, and I can definitely confirm that its working (because I set it up :) ). Occaisonally when there is trouble getting to a feed, Bloglines will put a red exclamation mark next to it, to signify it had trouble reading the feed, and this can hang around for a while even when the feed is working fine again.
Just make sure you’re subscribed to the address above and it should all be hunky dory. Now back to your originally programmed cupcake break.
Cheers,
May 1st, 2006 at 3:37 pmMatt
What an incredible photo! They look amazing, and I love the sound of that icing. Great idea.
May 1st, 2006 at 8:31 pmThanks Deborah - thanks Mary. Yes that worked a treat with the ‘feed’ at the end of the address! Can get the feeds a-ok now.
May 2nd, 2006 at 4:54 amDelicious, choc-orange is one of my favorite combos & love ginger-choc too
May 2nd, 2006 at 11:25 amYurm. These look like the most delightfully delicious cupcakes ever. I love ginger anything, and the idea of an orange ginger buttercream frosting? On chocolate? I’d either want to wear it as a fragrance or eat it. Both, actually….
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:12 amThis cupcake sounds delicious. I particularly like this picture and the background you’ve chosen for it. the bright strips at the bottom and the yellow icing against the dark brown just make the picture pop. great blog!
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:11 pmInterresting that you used the Valhrona chocolate I did the same and used some in a chocolate pavlova, it gave it a real richness and depth.
Cupcakes look great btw
May 5th, 2006 at 1:06 amThanks for pointing me to the post on Niki’s theory. It makes a lot of sense, and explains my less than stellar results with Nigella’s cupcake recipes (everything else I’ve tried by her is fine). I dont own a scale though, so it makes it hard to do it by weight. Perhaps its time to make the investment :-)
May 5th, 2006 at 6:53 amIndigo: Did someone say a cake shop who also sells shoes!? Another business idea to the list ;)
Cin: I have a growing list of frosting ideas and pulled this one from the list. Will have to try it with a larger cake me thinks :)
Reb: Lime frosting sounds lovely. I’d love to give that a go. Think it would go really nicely with a sour cream cake…
Mary: Thanks! :)
Matt: Cupcakes are more than the sum of scones and chocolate bits! Thanks for the techie support. :)
Niki: Thanks! I love how the chocolate cake is too dark to even see the crumble!
Ange: Yep chocolate-orange is delicious combination… I really should indulge in this pairing more often.
Sid: Did someone say a perfume, shoe, cake shop? Oh my. I haven’t tried these soaps, but don’t they look interesting…
Amanda: Thanks for your kind words. I like pictures which “pop”! :)
Gastrochick: Yes, the valrhona cocoa powder is superb to cook with. You could probably use less, but I wanted rich cake this time.
Tanvi: Indeed. The theory makes perfect sense. Baking is like a science and scales are probably the best way to get consistant amounts. Good luck!
May 5th, 2006 at 10:34 am