Search this site

Maison Cupcake

Home Cooking and Baking by Sarah Trivuncic

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
    • Baking and Desserts
    • Family Food Ideas
    • Party Food Ideas
  • Misc
    • Journal
    • Classes and Events
You are here: Home / Recipes / Baking and Desserts / Chocolate Orange Halloween Cupcakes

Chocolate Orange Halloween Cupcakes

October 28, 2010 by Sarah Trivuncic 35 Comments

This site content is free. When you purchase via referral links on our posts, including those to Amazon, we earn affiliate commission, at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for reading and please share posts you find useful!

One of my favourite cakes is the Nigella Lawson Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange cake which I did a variation of in the Turkish Delight Cake. Granted, you can keep all the ingredients in the store cupboard but I don’t think that’s a unique feature.

However, as I’ve raved before, I love this cake as you can mix all the batter in a double boiler adding all the ingredients to the melted butter and chocolate. I don’t have a dishwasher unless you count the one I’m married to, so anything that stops him complaining about mess is good by me.

I have been wondering how well the Store Cupboard cake would translate into cupcake bases, Nigella’s sticky gingerbread cake worked beautifully when used as cupcake bases in this post.

Another adaptation I have recently made with this cake mix is to use gluten free flour. I made two small gluten free store cupboard chocolate and orange cakes last month using 5 inch springform tins. It works very well with a simple substitution, this cake is brownie like in texture and as such works very well with gluten free flour. I used Dove’s Farm gluten free blended flour which is available in most supermarket chains.

Sainsbury’s had recently sent me three bars of their Taste the Difference Chocolate and I planned to melt one of these. We’d eaten the Swiss Milk Chocolate one the other day, to use the chocolate and orange one would be pointless with all the marmalade I’d be using which left this Santa Domingo Organic Fair Trade Chocolate.

Tearing open the packet, I spied lofty claims that this chocolate had red berry and wine flavours… surely even a Marabou and Milka loving chocolate heathen like me wouldn’t melt this stuff down into cake? I’m rarely a fan of dark chocolate but immediately conceded this bar was too good to make cake with. I’d like to savour it square by square with a glass of red wine in the evenings but the reality is that it will get wolfed down quicker than that. It’s still in the cupboard, for now at least.

Instead, melting a plain bar from Morrison’s did the trick. As well as chocolate, Sainsbury’s had sent me goodies from their revamped home baking range and I made use of their Taste the Difference Valencian Orange Extract in this buttercream. I was surprised how much of it I needed – a generous 1.5 teaspoonsful. Still, it’s better to be cautious with these things as it’s easier to add more and cope with too much.

The bats were my husband’s innovation. I like how the veins on the orange segment imprint look like the furry part of the ears. I know bats are not orange but I cannot bring myself to eat black icing whatever the festival! Cutesy is best in my book.

Finally, this post is my entry to English Mum’s Great Big Autumn Bake Off. I’m thinking I should have claimed Ted made these then he might have won the kid’s section?! Alas I am too honest.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes 


Based on Nigella Lawson’s Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake, How to Be a Domestic Goddess.
Makes 12 large cupcakes or 18 standard bun sized
ones

Ingredients
For the cake bases
125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g marmalade (shredless is best for children)
150g caster sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour or gluten free flour

For the orange buttercream icing
500g icing sugar
150g unsalted butter, softened
50-70ml milk
1.5 tsp orange flavouring
Yellow and red gel food colouring (or orange if you have it)

For the Hallowe’en bat decoration
Terry’s Chocolate Orange slices, cut in half vertically (for the ears)
Mini Marshmallows, cut in half horizontally (for the eyes)
A tube of chocolate or dark icing with a fine nozzle (for the pupils)

You will need 2 x 12 hole bun tins and paper cases.

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170c or gas mark 3. Line the bun tins with paper cases.
2. Using a double boiler, melt the butter over a low heat and then stir in the chocolate pieces until both combined and smooth.
3. Turn off the heat and using a wooden spoon, stir in the marmalade, sugar, salt and eggs. When just about combined, beat in the flour a little at a time.
4. Spoon the batter into the paper cases and bake for around 25 minutes. Normally I would say bake until a cocktail stick comes out clean but these bases are more brownie like and sponge so so long as the stick is not really wet after this time you should be ok. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before lifting out onto a wire rack.
5. Meanwhile, blend the softened butter and icing sugar in the food processor until it resembles sand. Pour the milk and flavouring through the funnel until it become soft icing.
6. Using a cocktail stick, add spots of yellow and red gel colourings and pulse the food processor until a satisfactory orange colour is obtained.
7. Spread the icing on the cake bases using either a small palette knife or pipe it on. Decorate by piping tiny pupils with the dark icing onto the marshmallow pieces and press carefully into the buttercream. Push each half of a chocolate orange segment into the buttercream to make bat’s ears. Alternatively you can just use a tube of usual sprinkles like I have in these cakes below left.

This site content is free. When you purchase via referral links on our posts, including those to Amazon, we earn affiliate commission, at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for reading and please share posts you find useful!
Filed Under: Baking and Desserts Tagged With: baking, cakes, chocolate, cupcakes, gluten free, Halloween, oranges

About Sarah Trivuncic

Sarah Trivuncic has published recipes, restaurant and travel reviews on Maison Cupcake since 2009. She lives in Walthamstow, East London with her husband and teenager.
Read More/Contact

« Beef Quesadillas
Halloween cookies recipe for trick or treat »

Comments

  1. Tracy B says

    October 28, 2010 at 8:37 am

    Oh my!! They look awesome! May have to make those at the weekend!

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:34 pm

      Thanks! Let me know how you get on!

      Reply
  2. faithy says

    October 28, 2010 at 8:46 am

    These are so cute and adorable! I love the orange color too!

    Reply
  3. Happy Cook says

    October 28, 2010 at 8:49 am

    They look so so cute.

    Reply
  4. Natalie says

    October 28, 2010 at 8:49 am

    These look great. And chocolate orange is one of my favourite flavour combinations – in fact I can’t believe I’ve never made choc/orange cupcakes before. Hmmmnnn, think I’ll be sorting that very soon… Thanks for posting. (Btw, very easy but delicious fig recipe over on my new blog – come and have a look)

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:34 pm

      Yum I like figs, I will visit later…

      Reply
  5. aforkfulofspaghetti says

    October 28, 2010 at 8:50 am

    Heh heh. What fun! I think Ted won anyway – he got to eat the cakes after all, didn’t he? That must be a win in anyone’s book 😉

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:34 pm

      I have noticed a lot of icing getting licked but not a lot of cake getting eaten if the truth be told!

      Reply
  6. Rosa says

    October 28, 2010 at 9:01 am

    They are so cute!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply
  7. Sanjeeta kk says

    October 28, 2010 at 9:41 am

    Wowee!! The cup cakes look as if they are about to fly.. Lovely recipe, Sarah

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:37 pm

      They flew straight into Ted’s mouth! (and mine admittedly…!)

      Reply
  8. nisha says

    October 28, 2010 at 10:30 am

    they look really cute..

    Reply
  9. Heavenly Housewife says

    October 28, 2010 at 11:10 am

    Those are so sweet, I can tell in the last picture how happy your son is 🙂
    *kisses* HH

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:33 pm

      Arr thank you, he definitely gets very excited about cake but don’t we all?!

      Reply
  10. Barbara Bakes says

    October 28, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    Such a cute idea! I love those chocolate oranges and I think you were right to go with an orange frosting. It just reiterates the orange flavor.

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:32 pm

      MMm yes, I am a sucker for chocolate oranges!

      Reply
  11. Jamie says

    October 28, 2010 at 2:43 pm

    Sarah, the two pics of Ted are priceless! Absolutely adorable! And so are these fun cupcakes. You are so super talented and I’ll bet all the mums will be ordering these from you. I LOVE the chocolate-orange cupcake recipe and will so try it!

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:35 pm

      Thanks! I soooo have to get my business cap on!

      Reply
  12. Jeanne @ CookSister! says

    October 28, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    Wow – those are too adorable! And I love Ted hovering eagerly in the background 🙂

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:36 pm

      Yes and he moved from hover to hoover with incredible ease!!

      Reply
  13. Claire K Creations says

    October 28, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    These are seriously cute! I bet the don’t last until Halloween though. They look delicious!

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:32 pm

      You are dead right – they’ve all gone already…

      Reply
  14. Mr. P says

    October 29, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    We made exactly the same cake gluten free last week for Perce’s work friends. I actually prefer it – the higher protein gives a nice texture. Used blackberry jam and it was amazing!

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:31 pm

      Mmmm blackberry! Sounds wonderful!

      Reply
  15. Sandra says

    October 29, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    Thanks for this post especially as it is on GF baking.

    I tried these but they didn’t really rise. Although the icing is very, very forgiving which was good in this case. I used the gluten free flour as we have four coeliacs in our house but I think they could do with a spoon of baking powder if you are using GF flour xxx

    Reply
    • Sarah, Maison Cupcake says

      October 29, 2010 at 7:31 pm

      Yes you are probably right, mine rose more than I expected them too so I didn’t think to add this but I agree it’s worth trying.

      Reply
  16. Melanie says

    October 30, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    Oh my, they are adorable!

    Reply
  17. Nic says

    October 30, 2010 at 11:30 pm

    Oh how cute! Perfect for Halloween.

    Reply
  18. Paula says

    July 18, 2011 at 11:53 am

    I’ve been looking for a good chocolate orange cupcake recipe and I think I’ve found it! Ill let you know how I get on!

    Reply
  19. Pauline Martin says

    November 15, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    looks like i’ll have some fun baking

    Reply
  20. Pauline Martin says

    November 15, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    Looks like fun

    Reply
  21. Pauline Martin says

    November 15, 2011 at 10:45 pm

    Going to have fun baking again for all the family with your fab recipes

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A hallowe’en recipe roundup, and win a hamper of baking goodies from Dr Oetker - ENGLISH MUM says:
    October 24, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    […] Maison Cupcake’s fabulous chocolate orange bats […]

    Reply
  2. Recipe: Wolf Cupcakes | Fuss Free Flavours says:
    December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm

    […] were for his party.   We tried to persuade him to have bat cupcakes, I showed him Sarah’s here, but to no avail.   “But bats are not orange Helly, I want a wolf cake”.  His older […]

    Reply
  3. Halloween treats: 19 spooky goodies for trick or treatersMaison Cupcake | How to bake your way through life says:
    December 3, 2012 at 1:51 pm

    […] There’s never been a bat cuter than one with a Terry’s chocolate orange segment for ears. I’d eat a bat like this wouldn’t you? Terry’s chocolate orange bat cupcakes […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




© 2009-2025 Sarah Trivuncic

All content copyright of site owner
Sarah Trivuncic
except where otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Neither images or text may be reproduced without permission. Privacy / Disclosure

My Book

Cover of "Bake Me I'm Yours... Sweet Bitesize Bakes" by Sarah Trivuncic; image shows a selection of small cakes and patisserie. The book has a green polka dot spine edged with pink ribbon and a bow.

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT