Choc-Orange cupcakes with orange whipped icing

Sunday I had an urge to bake & the flavour required was choc orange. After searching through a few cookbooks & my folder of magazine cut outs I finally found this recipe for choc orange cupcakes from a recent Donna Hay magazine. I have to say the cake mixture was delicious so was off to a promising start. I was however a bit worried about the icing as I have never used this method before & as I was beating it didn’t know when to stop, ie how thick would it get? It was still quite runny but spreadable when I figured nothing much else was going to happen so I spread away keeping my fingers crossed that it was harden up after a while. On tasting the cake part was delicious & the topping of crushed jaffas gave it some lovely orangey crunch, also the tangy icing was a great offset to the chocolate cakes & it did harden up a little though not rock hard. So all in all pretty yum

Choc-Orange cupcakes with orange whipped icing

250g butter, softened
1 /4 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
2 ¼ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup milk
200g dark chocolate, melted
1 cup chocolate orange balls, roughly chopped

Orange whipped icing
1 cup caster sugar
¼ orange juice
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
2 ½ tablespoons orange flavoured liqueur
3 eggwhites

Preheat oven to 160c. Place butter & sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer & beat until light & creamy. Gradually add the eggs & beat well. Sift over the flour, baking powder & cocoa & beat until combined. Fold through the milk, stir in the melted chocolate & spoon into 2 12 hole ½ cup capacity tins lined with patty cases. Top each cake with crushed choc orange balls & bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool on wire racks.

To make the icing, place the sugar, orange juice, cream or tartar & liqueur in a saucepan over high heat & stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low & simmer for 3 minutes. Place the egg whites in an electric mixer & beat until soft peaks form. While the motor is running, gradually add the sugar mixture & beat until thick & glossy. Spread the icing over the cupcakes with a palette knife. Makes 24.