Chocolate-Orange Cupcakes

My boss's birthday was today, but she's out of town, so my office was going to go out to lunch with her yesterday. I thought upon our return we should have cake, and I wanted to make something good. I didn't want to make cake from a box, as there are so many good cupcake recipes I wanted to try (see www.cupcakeblog.com for about 100 examples of awesome cupcakes). I had a grapefruit the day before, so I still had the astringent bitterness of citrus in my thoughts, and so I considered the cupcakeblog's basic cupcakes filled with various citrus curds, with cream cheese frosting and zest on top. When I got to the various stores to replenish my egg and powdered sugar supplies, though, I couldn't find the many varieties of curd I expected, nor could I find the "grapefruit slices" candy I meant to top the cupcakes with. Grapefruit slices are like orange slices, only 100 times better: less gooey, a little harder, a little less sweet, a little more bitter. I get them from Central Market, but alas, they had none.

So I sampled other candies and tried a chocolate-coated orange peel candy, which had that astringency I was craving in the citrus cupcakes. So then they became chocolate orange cupcakes with little candies on top. This recipe was based on a Williams-Sonoma recipe I found online.

3 T cocoa
1/4 c hot water
1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t ground allspice
1/4 t ground ginger
1 orange
2 eggs, room temperature
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c buttermilk
1/8 t vanilla, 3/8 t orange juice
1/4 c butter, melted and cooled

Dissolve cocoa in water. Sift together flour, b. powder, soda and salt. Add the zest of the orange. In the stand-mixer bowl, mix the eggs and sugar, then add the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the cocoa mixture, then the butter, and then the dry ingredients (bit by bit). Fill 12 cupcake wrappers halfway to 3/4-way full. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes (15 was not nearly long enough, but 20 was pushing dryness). Remove them from pan and cool on a wire rack, once they are cool enough to handle. Frost after they are completed cooled.

Cream cheese frosting

1/2 stick butter
8 oz cream cheese (neufchatel is fine)
2 c powdered sugar
1/2 t vanilla, 1.5 t orange juice

Beat the butter until smooth, then add cream cheese and vanilla and OJ. Add powdered sugar a little at a time until 2 cups are incorporated. Add more if necessary, to obtain the stiffness you desire.