Recipe: Festive Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

It's been ages since I last did some baking so I decided to spend my Sunday, in the kitchen, whipping up some festive treats. For some reason I always associate Terry's Chocolate Orange's with Christmas and I seriously can't get enough of them at the moment. So, I thought I'd continue my orange obsession further by adding them into some cupcakes. The result is some seriously tasty cakes that are full of flavour and super easy to make... Cupcakes are one of my favourite things to bake as they follow such a basic recipe and you can't really go wrong with them. The only change I made to this recipe was to add in some crushed Terry's chocolate orange. The recipe is really simple and you can adjust it to suit however many cupcakes you'd like to make. Mine is based on producing 12. Ready to get baking? Youl'll need a large mixing bowl, some weighing scales and a whisk (if you have one) or a fork will do if not - that's what I use! And if you want to get creative with the buttercream, you'll need a piping bag and a nozzle (I use the wilton 2D which you can buy here.)

What you'll need: For the cupcakes 2 eggs, lightly beaten 125g caster sugar 125g self raising flour 125g soft unsalted butter Half a Terry's chocolate orange crushed up into tiny pieces For the buttercream and decoration 125g caster sugar 250g icing sugar 6/7 squares of milkybar white chocolate (optional) The other half of the chocolate orange - chop each segment in half A box of Cadburys Festive Friends  Edible glitter (or whatever you'd like to decorate them with!) How to make: 1. Pre-heat your own to about 180 degrees celcius and pop some cupcake cases into a 12 hole muffin tray. 2. In a large bowl, cream together your butter and, once mixed together, beat in one of the eggs. 3, Now the mixture will be quite sloppy so it's time to fold in some flour. Use a sieve to do this, if you can, and gradually start adding the flour until you've got about half left.  4. Mix together and then add the second egg and slowly sieve the remaining flour into the bowl. 5. Once all your ingredients are completely mixed together, add in the crushed chocolate orange and stir together 6. Spoon the mixture into your cupcake cases as evenly as possible. Try not to overfill the cases as they do rise a bit so I'd say make each case about half full. 7. Pop your cupcakes in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until they are golden on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Put them on a wire tray to cool. (The time can vary quite a bit so I would always check after 15 mins and if they're not ready just put them in a little longer.)

Onto the buttercream... 8. Whilst your cakes are cooling, it's time to make the buttercream. To do this, put your butter into a large bowl and gradually sieve the icing sugar in, constantly stirring them together. 9. Melt a bit of white chocolate in a bowl in the microwave and, once runny, add into the buttercream to loosen it a little and add a nice taste. (This part is optional - I just like the taste of white chocolate in buttercream but it isn't completely necessary!)  10. When your buttercream is a nice consistency - it should be soft but sturdy - spoon it into a piping bag with a nozzle attached to the end. 11. Slowly pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake, starting in the centre and swirling it round towards the edges in an anti-clockwise direction. 11. For decoration, I added half a chocolate orange segment to each cupcake, carefully sticking it into the buttercream, and then propped a festive friend up next to it! I also sprinkled some edible white glitter all over them too for a frosty, festive finish! And that's it! Eat them, enjoy them and take lots of photos for Instagram of course ;)

You could decorate these cupcakes however you like. I used Festive Friends as they were so easy to just stick into the buttercream but if you were really feeling adventurous you could make your own Christmas biscuits to add to the top. Will you be baking this Christmas? Share any recipes you have with me - I'm always looking for new things to bake :)