Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Frosting

My parents make fun of me for cooking and it's become apparent, after vacationing with them this summer, that they will never stop making fun of me for cooking. Cooking in front of my parents is, for me, what public speaking is for most. I get tense, embarassed, and am haunted by premonitions of my own inevitable failure.

My father came home from work yesterday and surveyed the scene: dirty dishes and cupcakes scattered around the kitchen.

"What are these for?" he asked.
"They're cupcakes, Dad."
"So?"
"So, they're not for anything," I explained. "They're for eating."
"Oh. I guess sometimes you just gotta bake, huh?"

In any case, I found the recipe for these cupcakes at Post Punk Kitchen, a great vegan website that you probably already knew about, recommended to me by my friend Jackson. (Someday, Jackson and I are going to open a bakery-slash-art gallery together, even if he doesn't realize that I'm serious yet). The recipe for the chocolate frosting comes from VegWeb.com. I have lifted both recipes almost exactly from these sites, adding my own helpful hints along the way.

These are quite different from a typical cupcake. The Grand Marnier and orange peel really adds an interesting and light element to the decadant chocolate. The cake is more flavorful and crumbly than what I'm used to, while the frosting is rich without being overwhelming or too thick. Between melting chocolate, zesting oranges, and being terrified that I was going to burn my frosting, making these cupcakes in my parents' kitchen was a harrowing--but in the end, worthwhile--experience.

Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes:
-2 cups flour
-1/2 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder*
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/4 teaspoon sea salt
-1/2 cup canola oil
-1 cup maple syrup
-3/4 cup soy milk
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
-4 tablespoons semi sweet chips
-1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel

*So, I'm not gonna lie--I didn't know what Dutch processed cocoa is. I mean, I looked it up and apparently you're not supposed to use regular cocoa in a recipe with baking powder because of some sort of chemistry issue. I couldn't find any of this at my grocery store, though so instead I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa--a mix of Dutch and traditional cocoa. Mine turned out fine, so I think it's nothing to stress about.

• Preheat your oven to 350F
  
• Put the chocolate chips in the microwave on high for about a minute so that they can start getting melted. Set them aside.
• Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa (it's best if you sift them, but don't stress too much about it).
• In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until they're a little foamy. Add the orange peel.
• Nuke the chocolate chips for one more minutes. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Then, fold in the melted chocolate.
  
• Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 of the way full. Cook for about 20 minutes (20-25). This should make about 15-18 muffins.

So, once your muffins are out of the oven (or while they're baking, if you're talented), you're ready to tackle the frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

-1 cup sugar
-6 tablespoons corn starch
-4 tablespoons cocoa*
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 tablespoons oil
-1 cup water
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*I used the same Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa for the frosting. I would recommend staying consistant here with whatever cocoa you chose for the cupcakes.

• Sift together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa. Sifting will make it vastly easier to avoid lumps
  
• Add the water and whisk it with the dry ingredients until it's smooth.
  
• Heat the mix over medium-low heat while constantly stirring. This is the most labor-intense part because the frosting WILL begin to get too sticky and taffy-like at the bottom unless you stand there and stir it the whole time.
  
• Heat the frosting until it's about the consistency of donut frosting--thicker than glaze but thinner than icing. Remove from heat and stir in oil and vanilla.
• Dip the tops of the cooled cupcakes into the still-warm frosting.
  

By the way: this frosting can also works great on cakes. Just allow it to thicken more on the heat and then let it cool before frosting your cake.

As a finishing touch, I took orange slice candies and cut each candy into three slices, lengthwise, before laying two slices on each cupcake.



Enjoy!