Orange, Chocolate & Kahlua Cupcakes

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs (separated)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese (original recipe calls for sour cream)
• 2 tablespoons kahlua
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350°f line a cupcake baking tray with paper liners. place the butter, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and mix well until creamy.
• 2 in another bowl, add the baking powder, salt and flour and stir together. slowly add the ingredients into the creamed egg yolk mixture, alternating with a little orange juice each time until all the ingredients are combined.
• 3 beat the egg whites and fold carefully into the mixture, then fold the chocolate chips into the combined mixture. spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners, up to about 2/3 full. place in the oven and bake for around 15-20 minutes. remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes. transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
• 4 for frosting, beat confectioners' sugar and butter in a small bowl until soft and creamy (because there's so little butter in comparison to the sugar, i found that i had to help it along a bit by getting my hands in the frosting). beat in the mascarpone, kahlua, and orange zest (for the zest, i didn't measure, i just zested 1 large orange into the frosting). swirl onto cooled cupcakes.