Chocolate Orange Filled Cupcakes

I will often email recipes to myself that seem interesting, that one of these days I will try to make. I discovered this recipe in my email folder, who knows how long it has been there. The original recipe is from allrecipes.com. I ended up using the original idea of the recipe, but used my own recipes to replicate it. The recipes are basic: a chocolate cupcake, butter frosting used as filling, and a chocolate butter frosting made with cocoa powder.

While chocolate and vanilla are a great combination, I thought I would try a chocolate orange variation. A very good friend of mine loves this combination and I’m always on the lookout for things that use these flavors together. This was an easy adaptation. I would normally use orange zest for much of the orange flavor, but I used orange oil instead since I had that on hand.

The results are wonderful, as long as I don’t think about how much sugar these contain!


Cupcakes
2 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
2/ cup cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
½ cup hot water
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Filling
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons orange oil
2-3 tablespoons milk

Frosting
½ cup butter
½ cup cocoa
3-2/3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons orange oil
Salt (dash)
1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Add the shortening, eggs, milk, hot water, and vanilla. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. Increase to medium speed and beat for 3 minutes.

Spoon batter into paper-lined cupcake pan. Fill each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 16-20 minutes, until center of cupcake springs back when lightly touched. Remove from the pan and cool on wire rack.

Make the filling:
Combine the butter and the powdered sugar. Add the orange oil and then add the milk, one tablespoon at a time, until the filling is smooth. Transfer the filling into a piping bag. I used a star tip. Poke the top into the top of the cupcake and squeeze to fill. It’s a little hard to know when the cupcake is filled, so I did a 5 second count and that seemed to be about right.

Frosting:
Melt the butter and then mix with the cocoa. Add the powdered sugar, orange oil, and salt alternately with the water. If the frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add more water (slowly, maybe ½ a teaspoon at a time). This should make more than enough frosting for the cupcakes.

Cupcake and frosting recipe adapted from Hershey’s Chocolate Lover’s Cookbook. Filling recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook (1991 edition)