When I hear the phrase Cake Sale I get excited. I love having an excuse to bake something special without feeling like I have to eat it afterwards! After working hard in the kitchen on a new recipe, there is nothing better than seeing other people enjoy the fruits of your labour – especially if it means raising some money for a good cause too. Recently, my work-place held a Cake Sale for Barnardo’s and I took along a batch of Mary Berry’s double chocolate cookies, and these chocolate orange cupcakes…
You will need
175g butter/margarine (for the sponge)
175g dark brown sugar
3 eggs (beaten)
175g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
50g cocoa powder (for the sponge)
1tbsp treacle
2tsp orange extract
200g butter/margarine (for the buttercream)
250g icing sugar
50g cocoa powder (for the buttercream)
100g orange fondant
star plunger cutter
piping bag and Wilton 1M nozzle
Method
Preheat the oven to 175C and line a twelve-hole muffin tin with cake cases. Cream together the butter and sugar, then gradually mix in the beaten eggs. Add the flour and baking powder and mix well. Weigh the cocoa powder into a mug, and pour hot water over the powder until just covered, then mix to form a cocoa paste. Add the cocoa paste to the mixture along with the treacle and orange extract, and mix until fully combined. Spoon the mixture into the cake cases, and bake for approximately twenty minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.
For the buttercream, combine the remaining butter, icing sugar and cocoa powder and whisk until thick and creamy. Spoon into a piping bag with a Wilton 1M tip, and pipe swirls of buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes. Decorate with stars cut from the orange fondant with a star plunger cutter.
Mrs Stanton's Makes 