It was a really
hot day yesterday, yet in the afternoon I started baking and heating
the small flat even more. I can't complain though, as the end result
was really nice. I tried my own experimental recipe for chocolate
orange cupcakes, and it worked!
The combination of
chocolate and orange is just heavenly, don't you think! I've been
planning this kind of cupcakes for a long time and now I got my
Finnish Da Capo chocolates that are perfect for these cupcakes, so I
finally decided to make them (Da capo is a musical term in
Italian, meaning from the beginning, literally from the head, which
makes me think that I could make these cupcakes again...). Da Capos
are iconic Finnish sweets manufactured by Fazer since 1916, and
already as a child I adored them. They contain a tiny amount of rum,
so I decided to add an additional kick through the Sailor Jerry rum. If you can't get Da Capo chocolates, don't worry, you can replace
them with any dark chocolate or orange flavoured chocolate.
This recipe shall
give you about 15 cupcakes.
Cupcake dough:
50 g Da Capo chocolates
1 large orange (zest + 75 ml orange
juice)
2 eggs
100 g margarine
85 g sugar
150 ml milk
25 ml Sailor Jerry rum
300 g wheat flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tsp baking powder
Icing:
50 g Da Capo chocolates
10 g dark baking chocolate
1 tbsp orange zest
2 tbsp bronze crunch (optional, also
other sugary decorations can be used)
Preparation:
Pre-heat the oven to 180-200C. Place
muffin cases into a muffin tin or use silicone muffin cases.
Start preparing the cupcake dough.
Coarsely chop the Da Capo chocolates into chips, grate the orange
zest and squeeze the orange juice. One large orange should give
enough juice for the dough.
First whisk the eggs, soft margarine,
sugar, milk, orange juice and rum into a smooth mixture. Then add the
flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and orange zest to the mix, and
whisk these until you have an even dough. Finally fold in the
chocolate chips with a spatula.
Pour the dough into muffin cases, fill
them up halfway. Bake them for about 25-30 minutes until the cakes
are baked throughout. Let them cool down after the baking.
Then prepare the icing by melting 2/3
of the remaining Da Capo chocolates in a water bath with an addition
of a little baking chocolate as that should make the whole thing a
bit smoother. You can also add a dash of milk or rum, if the
chocolate needs smoothening. Either save little orange zest from the
dough making or grate some more and mix it to the chocolate. Then
coarsely chop the rest of the chocolates into chips.
Spread the melted chocolate on top of
the cupcakes while it's still warm. Let it cool down for a couple of
minutes and then sprinkle the chocolate chips and possibly some
bronze crunch on.
Enjoy with friends and coffee!
Your VegHog
