I apologize for my poor decorating skills. They have not progressed much from 5 year old me. Also, note my fabulous Mister Donut collector’s plate that I lugged all the way back from Japan. I had to eat a ridiculous amount of donuts to get that baby. ;)

So anyway! For Valentine’s Day this year, I decided to bake my boyfriend some mini cupcakes. We had a blood orange and chocolate caramel a couple weeks ago, and he absolutely loved it. So, I immediately though that I could bake something with chocolate and orange in it. While there were no blood oranges available at my grocery store today, I’d eventually like to try this recipe again using blood oranges. This was originally a normal cupcake recipe, and I made minis out of it. The cake itself is very moist, and it probably does them better justice to keep them as normal sized cupcakes, but you live and you learn! Also, the frosting is a thick orange glaze made with orange zest. It’s quite fabulous, and I think this cake batter could be modified to be an awesome bundt cake.

Makes approximately 24 mini cupcakes or 12 regular cupcakes.

Ingredients for Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 oranges, juiced and zested (1 tablespoon of zest for cupcakes and remained reserved for glaze)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for Orange Glaze:

3 tablespoons butter, softened
reserved orange zest
1/4 cup milk
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking power, baking soda and salt. This really makes a difference in getting a nice fluffy cupcake.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the orange zest, juice, oil, and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined and flour is no longer streaky.
5. Add batter to cups in spoonfuls until almost at the top of the liner.
6. If making minis, bake for 13 - 15 minutes. If making regular cupcakes, bake 15 - 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
8. To make the frosting, cream the butter and remaining orange zest together in a medium bowl or stand mixer. Beat in the milk, sugar and vanilla until smooth. I added slightly more than 2 cups of sugar to get the frosting to stand up a little bit.
9. Frost cooled cupcakes and and seal in an airtight container until serving.

Here is another photo of them. Enjoy! (via Baking Bites)