* Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes with orange cream filling. Bonus- A DIY Christmas gift idea: Dark Chocolate orange sauce!
[ Published by muffin on Mar 1st, 2007 in December 2007, The Cupcakes! with 0 Comments ]
Alright everyone, its time to take a deep breath *takes a deep breath* and recover from all this bacon cookie craziness with a tried and true flavour combination-
Chocolate and orange.
See, I’m feeling more mellow today.
I’m also feeling like its about time I start working on my Christmas gifts, since.. you know, the big day is like two weeks away. We’ll be giving our gifts out on the weekend before Christmas, so I figured I’d start today with a test batch of one of my favourite things to make and give as a gift from my kitchen.
Dark Chocolate orange sauce…
But I can’t just take a photo of a bottle of dark chocolate orange sauce, which is why I decided to make some Chocolate buttermilk cupcakes, fill them with orange cream filling and use the dark chocolate orange sauce as a topping for these tasty little bites of chocolate heaven.
Its nice and thick and rich, and it keeps well- so it is an excellent gift go give alone, maybe with a nice big bowl, a spoon and a gift certificate for Baskin Robbins… or with a mug, some hot cocoa mix and some homemade marshmallows (which is what I’ll be pairing my chocolate sauce with) Or as an “adults only” gift, with a quality nylon paintbrush and some candy sprinkles (Can you say Human cupcake?)
You could even make a whole gift basket of chocolate treats and tuck this in there.
Another great idea would be to make these cupcakes topped with an orange segment, filled with orange cream, pour a little of the dark chocolate orange sauce on top, have a Holiday party and as a party favour, have everyone take a little bottle of the sauce home with them!
..Or you could just eat it all yourself. I won’t tell anyone. *smile*
In the meantime, here are the recipes-
Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack.
Once the cupcakes have fully cooled, you can fill them with the orange cream filling.
I used THIS recipe for buttercreams, and for the flavours, I added 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon orange extract. You can do all orange if you like, but I felt it was a bit overpowering, and I liked the ‘creamsicle’ effect of using the vanilla as well. I just made the buttercream filling, its like a thickened frosting.
To fill the cupcakes-
Use a small paring knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a the “shell” of the cupcake top with a little bit of fluffy cake still attached. Fill the cavity left in the cupcake with a teaspoon or so of the orange cream filling. Replace the top of the cupcake.
You don’t have to add this special step, but you may notice that there are two different tones of chocolate on the cupcake. I melted some milk chocolate and spread a little of it on top of the cupcake, that way it wasn’t just DARK chocolate on DARK cupcakes, the lighter tone of the milk chocolate really makes the chocolate sauce more noticeable in the photograph, and it tastes good too!
Dark Chocolate Orange Sauce
12 ounce dark chocolate cut into small pieces (if you really want to make a milk chocolate sauce, feel free to use milk chocolate, or even semi sweet chocolate)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon orange liqueur (or you can use a teaspoon pure orange extract in its place)
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl and set aside.
Combine the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a saucepan and place over low heat. Bring to a boil, stirring often.
Remove from heat and pour immediately over the chocolate. Let stand until the chocolate has melted, then stir until smooth.
Stir in the vanilla extract and liquor.
Strain into your choice of sealable container (I used food grade glass bottles from Specialtybottle.com, you can use canning jars, re-use other containers like baby food jars or peanut butter jars, Just make sure they can be immersed in hot water for reheating)
Makes about 2 cups of chocolate sauce.
The chocolate sauce will keep for a few months in the refrigerator.
If you give the sauce as a gift, you can label it however you wish. I made a simple label out of white paper, and I used a strip of clear tape to laminate and adhere it to the bottle. You can adorn the bottle or jar with a cloth topper, a ribbon tied around the bottle neck, or like I did, with a little wire ring and some beads (orange for orange flavour!) The wire embellishment is removeable once the lid is taken off, so it won’t interfere with pouring.
Just make sure to include a tag or a note stating the ingredients and the instructions for use-
Ingredients- Chocolate, Cream, Sugar, Corn syrup, Flavouring
To reheat chocolate sauce for use, remove the cap and dip the bottom 3/4 of the bottle in hot or boiling water for about 30 seconds. Do not boil the bottle, do not microwave the bottle with the lid on. Mix with milk, add a flavour boost to your hot cocoa, or pour on top of your choice of tasty treats. Enjoy!
-A.
P.S. if you’re not a fan of Chocolate and orange, you can make the cream filling using any flavour extract that appeals to you. Same with the Chocolate sauce, you can add a teaspoon of any sort of flavour extract, or a tablespoon of any flavoured liqueur that you feel would pair well with chocolate. Be creative! Be inventive!
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