Chocolate Orange Halloween Cupcakes

After scouring Pinterest for Halloween recipes, I came across this Ghoulishly Awesome Black and Orange Cupcakes which is a marbled take on the recipe I had it mind and I knew instantly I wanted to re-create it. These delicious, moorish cakes will no doubt be gone in minutes - perfect for the 31st or if you're heading to any Halloween parties this season. 

I used a standard chocolate cupcake recipe that I've been using since I was child when I used to bake at the weekend with my Nan. I can do this recipe with my eyes shut, but now is the time to share my secrets! 

My top tip for this recipe would be to weigh your two eggs and then however many grams they weigh, that's how much butter and sugar you should use. If you were making vanilla cupcakes then the flour would be equal too! I have adapted this recipe to show you the average amount of grams this usually is! 

Ingredients (12 cupcakes) - 

175g Butter
175g Granulated Sugar
150g Self-Raising Flour
25g Cocoa Powder
2 Teaspoon Water
1 Teaspoon Orange Extract 
Optional - 1/2 Zest of an Orange

Cake Decor Halloween Frosting 
Baked With Love Halloween Decorations 

Method - 

Start off by creaming together the butter and sugar together in a bowl until it's fluffy and a pale white in shade. 

Then add in the two eggs, one at a time. Once mixed together, add the water and orange extract (orange zest if needed) to the mixture. 

Slowly add the self raising flour into the mixture, 50g at a time until smooth. 

Spoon into your cupcake cases of choice (I use black space themed ones!) and place in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. 

For the icing, I cheated this time and went with the a pre-made Halloween frosting and decorations, but you can easily re-create this look with an piping bag and nossle! Just make two mixtures of butter icing; dying one with black colouring and the other with orange. Put one half down one side of the piping bag and the other colour down the other side. Swirl on top of the cupcake. For the decorations, I went with pre-made icing decorations, but another few ideas would be: 

- Edible eyes stuck all over the frosting. 
- Cutting an Oreo in half to make wings and a mini Oreo paired with edible eyes to give the appearance of a bat. 
- Create a white spider's web using melted white chocolate and a stencil. Once set, place on top of your cupcake. 

Did you enjoy this chocolate orange Halloween recipe? Will you be re-creating this at home?