Recipe: Terry's Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

There's one thing I absolutely adore around the Christmas time. And that's eating as many Terry's Chocolate Oranges as feasibly possible before they become hard to find once again. However for a change, instead of eating a bag of miniature slices to myself, I decided to bake with them. And I'm really happy with how these Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream turned out.

Ingredients
For The Cupcakes
- 110g Butter (Softened)
- 110g Plain Flour
- 110g Caster Sugar
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 3 Tsp Cocoa Powder
- 2 Tsp Orange Extract

For The Buttercream
- 50g Dark Chocolate
- 100g Unsalted Butter (Softened)
- 200g Icing Sugar
- Milk (To loosen)

To Decorate
- 1 Bag Of Miniature Terry's Chocolate Orange Slices 

Method

1. Pre heat over to 180c and line a 12 hole muffin/cupcake tin with paper cases.
2. Place the softened butter and sugar in a bowl. Using a stand mixer, hand mixer or silicone spatula, beat until pale and fluffy.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the bowl. 
4. Beat the eggs and add to the mixture. 
5. Add your flavouring of choice. I wanted mine to be orange so I added two teaspoons of orange extract to give it a real orange flavour. However you can add whatever flavouring you'd like, depending on what cakes you're making. 
6. Beat the mixture until combined, making sure to scrape around the edges to combine all the mixture/ingredients.
7. Spoon into cases and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on them as I tend to find that recipes containing cocoa powder are quicker to burn/overcook if left unattended. 
8. Once cooked leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack. 
9. Then it's time to start making the butter cream. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie or in the microwave. Once melted, leave to cool or at least not hot to touch.
10. Beat the softened butter in a bowl until soft, then gradually sift in the icing sugar, making sure to beat everything fully before adding more. Not only will it let you know if you have too much icing sugar but also stops it from flying everywhere and leaving it looking like a winter wonderland in your kitchen. 
11. Pour the chocolate into the mixture and gently fold through, making sure to scrape along the sides and bottom of the bowl so every thing is fully incoporated. 
12. If the mixture seems a little stiff and doesn't look like it would be easy to pipe, add a couple of teaspoons of milk to loosen the mixture. It'll make piping so much easier. 
13. Once you're happy with your buttercream, spoon it into a piping bag. Cut the end of the bag as high up as you want, all that it's going to change is whether you get a thin line of buttercream or a thick line. 
14. Once your piping bag is ready, pipe your icing in any design you like, making sure to keep the air out of the piping bag as it'll only cause you to use more icing when you don't want. 
15. When you're happy with your piping, decorate with miniature Terry's Chocolate Orange slices. Leave to one side to allow the buttercream to set slightly, then tuck in and enjoy