Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes w/ Orange Zest Icing

Cupcakes are definitely my absolute favourite thing to bake. They're quick, simple and have a thousand different flavours, but for my Mum's birthday a few weeks ago I whipped her up a batch of cakes that were half classic vanilla and half a rich chocolate, both generously topped with orange icing. Chocolate and orange are a match made in heaven, and my mum's favourite combination, so they wen't down an utter treat at home (after a little bit of being knocked around when I carried them on the tube through London, eek)! When I'm off my crazy low carb diet I'm going to make even more of these indulgent little treats. In the meantime, why don't you get baking them instead!?

INGREDIENTS
For plain cupcakes:
4oz soft butter or margarine
4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
2/3 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence

For chocolate cupcakes:
4oz soft butter or margarine
4oz caster sugar
3oz self raising flour
2/3 eggs
1oz cocoa powder

(if you don't want to make 2 batches of mixture, make a slightly bigger batch of plain, split it in two bowls and add cocoa powder to one)

For orange icing:
75g soft butter or margarine
175g icing sugar
Juice of half a large orange
Zest of 1 whole orange

METHOD

Preheat oven to 175/180°C and prepare cupcake cases in cake tray. Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth and combined. Add eggs and flour bit by bit alternatively, mixing thoroughly every turn until mixture has no lumps. For the chocolate cakes, mix together the flour and cocoa powder and add in the same way with eggs. Remember the vanilla essence for the plain batch!

Put a heaped, hearty tablespoon of the mixture into each cupcake case, filling up with more later if it doesn't look enough. Don't overfill though - you want good size cakes, but not over-risen monsters! Pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. If you're unsure if their cooked, use one of my mums old trick of gently poking the top and seeing if they spring back up, or poking a couple through the middle with a cocktail stick to see if it comes out clean.

Once they're done, remove from the oven and leave to cool. Meanwhile, make the icing. Cream together the butter and icing sugar until it's a smooth paste. With a sieve over the bowl, squeeze out the orange juice from half an orange. Stir this into the creamed butter and sugar. If mixture ends up a little thin, add icing sugar until it thickens nicely. Keep tasting as you go to ensure the orange flavour is to your liking.

When cakes are cool enough, put icing mixture into and icing bag (or icing syringe if you're me) with whatever shaped nozzle you fancy. Generously ice the cakes, leaving a nice little peak at the top. To finish, finely grate orange zest over the top.

And voila! Gorgeous, easy and delicious cupcakes ready to eat.

What's your favourite, simple bake?