Sundays in the Kitchen: Dark Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

I am a bit of a chocoholic... if it's chocolate, I will eat it... if it's chocolate, it will last about two seconds in my presence. Recently, I rediscovered the greatness that is Terry's Dark Chocolate Orange Balls. Honestly, how can you not enjoy a piece of chocolate that requires you to physically assault it before consumption? I'm not lying... it's motto, written on the box, is "whack it and unwrap it". For those of us feeling stressed out and only a piece of chocolate will do, it has my vote.

My brother happens to agree with me so, when he graduated college I decided I would bring dark chocolate orange cupcakes to his graduation party as my present. I was worried though about how they might taste, so I turned everyone in my immediate area into taste testers for my various trials.

I found a dark chocolate cupcake recipe I really liked from Sally's Baking Addiction and then went to the wonderful world of Google to see how other bakers have flavored their cupcakes. Every recipe I came across used the juice of 1 orange but, I was curious to see if extract would give a bolder flavor. Round 1 was split - half batch with the juice of an orange, half batch with orange extract. They came out fine and were tasty but, you couldn't really taste the orange. You could smell it but the flavor was not quite there. Round 2 was a combination and that was the winner. I got overwhelmingly positive reviews from friends when I brought them to dinner. Therefore, the following recipe is from round 2.

Ingredients:

Cupcake:

1 stick unsalted butter

2 oz. special dark chocolate chips

1/2 c. unsweetened natural cocoa powder

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs - room temperature

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon orange extract

1/2 c. buttermilk

Frosting:

3 c. confectioners sugar

4 tbsp milk

1 stick margarine - softened

Zest of 1 orange

Orange food coloring (instructions should be on the box)

Directions:

Cupcake:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring each time. It took me 1 minute total to melt the butter and chocolate in my microwave. Set aside to cool down.

In a medium bowl, mix the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, juice, and orange extract together until smooth.

Add cooled butter/chocolate and whisk again until smooth.

Add half of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk. Repeat, then stir until combined. Be mindful not to over mix. The batter will be very thick and when scooped, will resemble a mousse.

Fill the liners 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake for 18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

In a medium bowl, put sugar, milk butter, and zest. Beat together using a handheld mixer on a low speed until thoroughly combined. Add food coloring and then mix again.