The Cupcake Love Affair.

Ah, cupcakes :) They make me happy. They're a mixture of amazing color, rich taste and pure indulgement jam-packed into one tiny irresistible paper cup.

Here's a simple recipe I found online for the most delicious chocolate orange cupcakes that I tried my hands at last week.

Ingredients :

3/4 cup or 175gm -- butter or margarine

3/4 cup or 175gm -- castor sugar

1 cup or 115gm -- self-raising flour

1/2cup or 60gm -- cocoa powder

3 eggs

1 orange -- juice extracted and skin finely grated

Method :

Cream butter or margarine with castor sugar in a bowl. Add the eggs in one at a time. Add the grated orange skin. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder. Add the orange juice. Place the mixture into individual cupcake cases in a baking tray. Cook at approximately 200 degrees for 20 minutes. When the cupcakes are cool, prepare for decoration.

Decoration :

Many resort to using whipped cream. But if you are the more conventional type, you can prepare your own buttercream icing at home. Here's how :

Cream 1 cup of unsalted butter/margarine with 2 cups of icing sugar. Add one tablespoon of vanilla essence. Once mixed, add two tablespoons of milk and beat till fluffy. And there, you now have your own icing to be used for decoration purposes.

Here's how my cupcakes turned out. I know the icing decoration looks kinda weird, but hey, it was my first time :P

By the way, these chocolate orange cupcakes are one of the many flavors of cupcakes you can make. If you're not a fan of chocolate, you may try your hands at vanilla flavor or maybe even strawberry flavor. You can find more cupcake recipes in the blog I came across.