Chocolate and citrus marmelade cupcakes

If you're like me and an awesome friend gave you a jar of kick@$$ mixed citrus marmelade that's so good you are running out of toast to eat it, look no further! This is a perfect recipe to use the liquid gold that is citrus jam.

If you don't have citrus or orange marmelade, don't worry you can absolutely make those cupcakes with just the zest and juice of the fruit!

Enjoy and feel free to comment!


INGREDIENTS (14 cupcakes - technichally yields 16, but a good baker needs to taste with and without frosting, no?)
for the cupcake batter:
- 1 cup AP flour
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 egg
- 1 stick butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup orange juice, with a splash of grapefruit flavored vodka (or not if you are baking for kids)
- 1/2 cup milk
- a splash of vanilla extract
- zest of 1 orange
- any kind of citrus marmelade, optionnal (mine is a mix of grapefruit, lemon and orange, a present from my friend R.)


for the frosting:
- 2 cups of confectionner sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 stick of butter
- a splash of vanilla extract
- a splash of grapefruit flavored vodka, optionnal


RECIPE:
prepare the batter first:
- preheat your oven at 350F
- cream the sugar and butter until fluffy

- add the egg, zest and vanilla and beat at low speed until soft and creamy

- mix the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt

- mix the milk and orange juice

- incorporate the dry ingredients and the milk-OJ mixture alternately, finishing by the dry ingredients and mix until smooth

- line a cupcake tray with paper liners and fill to 1/3 with batter, add a small spoonful of jam on top and cover with batter to 2/3 of the pan

Note: if you don't have jam, just skip the intermediate layer, and just fill the cupcake pan 2/3 up :)
- bake for 20 minutes at 350F (oopsie, looks like I forgot to take a picture of the final product!)
- let cool completely on a rack until ready to frost

prepare the frosting:
- mix the butter, zest, confectionner sugar and cocoa powder

- add the orange juice and mix until smooth

- fill a pastry bag (or just a plain ziploc bag that you cut a corner from) and frost away!


Try not to eat the paper liner... ;)

Earl Grey cupcakes

Those of you who follow this blog and/or the Poupette in the Kitchen FB page know that I recently entered a hopefully long-term relationship with Piotr.

We decided to take things slow at first and opted for simple cupcakes. Nothing too fancy, but fun. No pressure :)

I'd been surfing the net in hopes to find a new flavor to play with, and this recipe at Fork and Flower caught my eye. I mean, Earl Grey? Cupcakes? Buttercream frosting? Gimme!


INGREDIENTS (approx. 18-20 regular sized cupcakes):
for the cupcake batter:
- 240g AP flour
- 280g sugar
- 200ml whole milk (I didn't have it, so I mixed 150ml fat free milk and 50ml heavy cream)
- 2 large eggs
- 80g softened butter
- 3tbsp loose leaves Earl Grey tea (I used some high quality from Teavana, but I guess if you only have tea bags, that would work too. Just make sure that you brew it extremely concentrated)
- 1 cup boiling water
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder

for the frosting:
- 4 cups confectioner sugar
- 1 cup of softened butter (2 sticks)
- 1 tsp crushed Early Grey tea (I used the contents of two Tazo tea bags, and crushed it even more with a pestle and mortar)
- a pinch of salt
- a few tbsp of milk to soften the frosting


 RECIPE:
- first things first: brew the loose Earl Grey leaves in the cup of boiling water. Let steep for 30 minutes, until you get a very concentrated brew. It should be about as dark as coffee. You will not use the whole cup of brewed tea, just 3 tsbp.

- preheat your oven to 375F
- mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter on low speed with the beater attachment until it resembles very fine fresh bread crumbs

- beat the eggs in the milk and cream and add 3 tbsp of brewed Earl Grey

- resume beating on low speed and gradually add the egg/milk/tea mixture until the batter is smooth

- dress a cupcake tray with cupcake liners

- transfer the batter into a jug to make filling the liners easier and fill about 2/3 up

- bake in the oven at 375F for 18 minutes
- once the cupcakes are cooling on a rack, you can start preparing the frosting
(oops, this one's for me, yeah?)
- whisk the confectioner sugar and butter until powdery

- add the salt, crushed tea and adjust the quantity of milk until you are satisfied with the texture

- proceed to frosting the cupcakes when they are completely cooled

- Enjoy!