Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

If you’re a fan of Terry’s chocolate oranges, you’ll love this cupcake recipe! Combining moist chocolate cake with a luxurious whipped ganache, this dessert is rich and decadent, with bright notes of orange zest in every bite.

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Recipe Highlights

• Easy and MOIST Chocolate Orange Cupcakes - This batter comes together in minutes, without the need for an electric mixer. The cupcakes stays moist thanks to a combination of oil and fresh orange juice (or water).
• Rich, Subtly Sweet Frosting - Rather than using a buttercream that's heavy on the powdered sugar, this recipe uses whipped chocolate ganache as a frosting. It makes for a cupcake that’s not overly sweet, letting the complex flavors of dark chocolate and orange zest shine through.
• Simple Ingredients - Fresh oranges provide all the flavor you’ll need for this recipe - no orange extract, oil, or concentrate required. Better yet, all of the ingredients in these cupcakes should be available at your local grocery store.
• Year-Round Favorite - The chocolate and orange flavor combination makes these cupcakes particularly festive for Christmas time, but this is also a dessert that can be served throughout the rest of the year!

Ingredients for This Chocolate Orange Cupcake Recipe

Remember when I said the ingredients for this recipe are simple? Well, let’s take a look at them!

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you gather supplies:

• Don’t try to substitute the heavy cream with anything lighter (like half-n-half). We need heavy cream to make a thick chocolate ganache that will whip properly and give us a thick, fluffy frosting.
• For dark chocolate orange cupcakes, I like to use bittersweet chocolate chips (around 60-70% cacao) in the ganache. That said, you can use semisweet if you’d prefer a sweeter, milkier flavor. Use the good stuff! Ghirardelli, Guittard, and Trader Joe’s all make good-quality chocolate chips.
• You can make this recipe with traditional all-purpose flour, or use a gluten-free all-purpose blend to make gluten-free chocolate orange cupcakes. My favorite brands are Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking Flour, King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour, and Cup 4 Cup Multipurpose Flour.
• Don’t use alkalized or Dutch process cocoa; this recipe relies on the acidity of natural cocoa powder interacting with baking soda to help the cupcakes rise. Splurge on good cocoa if you can, since it makes a big difference in flavor. Again, I like Ghirardelli, which is usually easy to find in stores.
• Oil (versus butter) works best to product moist chocolate cupcakes. You can use any kind of neutral-flavored cooking oil, including avocado, canola, olive, or vegetable oil.
• Make sure your eggs are at room temperature; an easy trick is to submerge them in a glass of warm water for 5-10 minutes.
• Two large navel oranges should give you enough juice and zest for this recipe. You can also substitute the orange juice with water if needed. Whether you use juice or water, it should be at room temperature.

First, make the chocolate orange ganache:

Add heavy cream to a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 60-90 seconds, or just long enough for the cream to start simmering. Add orange zest and chocolate chips, making sure they’re submerged, and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes before stirring until smooth.

Next, make the chocolate orange cupcakes:

Preheat your oven to 350ºF, and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

In another medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, combine granulated sugar, oil, eggs, orange juice (or water), orange zest, and vanilla extract. Whisk together until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, folding them in just until incorporated so that you don’t see any dry clumps of flour or cocoa powder. It does not need to be perfectly smooth.

Transfer the batter to the lined muffin tin, filling each cup about ⅔ full. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Finally, whip the ganache and frost the cupcakes!

By the time the cupcakes have cooled completely, the ganache should have thickened significantly and should no longer be warm. At this point, use an electric mixer to whip the ganache at medium to medium-high speed, beating just long enough for it to turn slightly paler in color and thicken enough to hold its shape.

Using a piping bag and tip of your choice (I like a large open star tip), pipe whipped ganache onto the chocolate cupcakes. Add your choice of garnish and serve!

If you want to get creative, you can also use:

• Chocolate curls
• Chocolate sprinkles
• Chocolate orange wedges
• Candied orange peel (dipped in tempered chocolate, if you’re feeling extra fancy!)

Tips for Perfecting This Recipe

• As with many recipes, it’s SO important to measure your flour correctly when making these cupcakes. For best results, use a kitchen scale. If you don’t have one, fluff your flour with a spoon, scoop it into your measuring cup, and level it off with a knife to get the most accurate measurement.
• Don’t over-whip the chocolate ganache. Ganache whips fairly quickly, and can turn grainy if you overdo it. Less is more!
• Though the cupcakes can be made in advance, the ganache should be piped as soon as it’s whipped. If making the cupcakes ahead, store them in an airtight container at room temperature until you’re ready to frost them.

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