Monday, June 16, 2008

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.

14 comments:

Indranee Batabyal said...

These cupcakes look great! I'm sure they'll taste yummy:)Congratulations for your well-deserved awards!

Finla said...

Chocolate and oranges marry together.
The comboalways tast delicious so am sure this too is delicious

Swati said...

These are such beauties... and taste delicious!!
Love the icing..

Susan @ SGCC said...

Adorable cupcakes! Orange and chocolate is such a winning combination. Tia Maria is the Italian version of Kahlua. My parents always used to put it in their espresso!

Tammy said...

they look yummy. I am going to have to try these

Y said...

Haha I like your mini tia maria. Or is that just a really huge glass of milk? ;)

Silvia - Magnolia Wedding Planner said...

wow darling these cupcakes are absoloutely perfect and stunning!! I wish I had one right now :-D
Good job hun!
have a nice day my dear!
Silvia

Ivy said...

They look stunning and bet they taste great as well.

Chef Jeena said...

Now these are beautiful, the combination is fabulous. I bet they were so tasty!

The Caked Crusader said...

They look soooooo cute all together like that!

adele said...

Chocolate and orange? Where do I sign up?

Maggie said...

I love Australian Women's Weekly books and I have this Cupcake Book. I'm going to get my book out and look for these. You've inspired me.

The cupcakes look lovely.

A wonderful coffee shop near to me has a lady who makes cakes for them and lots of them are from Australian Women's Weekly books and some are Nigella Lawson's and they are all truly wonderful.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Your cupcakes are beautiful and sound yummy! Great job!

NKP said...

I love mini cakes. Yours are adorable. Tia Maria and milk is my hubby's favourite after work drink.