Blog Party #35 - Chocolate - Mini choc-orange cupcakes & Tia Maria and Milk

Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness is once again hosting Blog Party, and this month's theme revolves around my favourite food group - chocolate! When I found out about this, I could not resist participating.

For my appetiser, I have brought mini choc-orange almond cakes with chocolate icing to the party. To make these little cakes, from a recipe for Baby Blue Cupcakes in The Australian Womens Weekly Cupcakes, you will need:

60g chopped dark chocolate
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2/3 cup orange juice
90g butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup almond meal


For the icing:


125g softened butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees celsius and grease 2 x 24 hole mini muffin tins.


Put the chopped chocolate, juice and zest in a saucepan, and melt over low heat on the stovetop. Remove from the stovetop and set aside.


Beat the butter, eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Fold in the sifted flour, cocoa, almond meal and chocolate mixture. Spoon the mixture into the mini muffin tins, and bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.


To make the icing, beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and creamy, then turn the electric mixer to low speed and beat in the icing sugar and milk in two lots. Stir through the sifted cocoa, then spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe the icing in a swirl pattern onto the top of each cake. Sprinkle with orange dollarettes, if desired.

These little cakes are very strong on flavour, so a mouthful is all that you need. I also made some larger ones for work, and I was informed that people preferred the smaller cakes because of the richness of the cakes.

The beverage which I have brought along is a new one for me - it is Tia Maria and Milk. To make it is dead simple - heat up a glass of milk in the microwave and add a shot of Tia Maria, then stir thoroughly before enjoying while the milk is still warm. Delicious! I would make this again.

Thanks to Stephanie for hosting Blog Party again this month, and do check Stephanie's site for the roundup here.