Chocolate Orange Pine Cone Cupcakes

Votes: 1

Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Complexity: average
Quantity: 12 pcs.

Decorate your New Year's or Christmas table with edible pine cone cupcakes. They'll captivate you with their soft and moist texture, and the stunning combination of chocolate and orange zest makes them delicious and aromatic. Bake them, coat them with buttery chocolate icing, and top the icing with crunchy chocolate squares made from cereal, which will look like the scales of a real pine cone.

The recipes use measuring containers with the following volumes:
1 glass (st.) - 250 ml.
3/4 cup (st.) - 180 ml.
2/3 cup (st.) - 160 ml.
1/2 cup (st.) - 125 ml.
1/3 cup (st.) - 80 ml.
1/4 cup (st.) - 60 ml.
1 tablespoon (tbsp) - 15 ml.
1 teaspoon (tsp) - 5 ml.
1/5 teaspoon (tsp) - 1 ml.

Ingredients for the recipe:

Cupcakes

1 cup flour
0.5 tsp of soda
0.5 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
0.5 cup cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 tsp finely grated orange zest

Glaze

1 tbsp. semi-sweet chocolate granules
165 g butter, room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tbsp. whole milk
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
4.5 cups chocolate squares from a breakfast cereal (such as Chocolate Toast Crunch)

Ingredient Substitution Suggestions

We recommend

Cooking the dish according to the recipe:

Bake the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 12-cup metal muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
In a small saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat, but do not bring it to a boil. Place the cocoa powder in a large bowl, pour in the hot milk, and whisk until smooth. Let cool slightly. Stir in the sugar, vegetable oil, egg, vanilla extract, and orange zest. Fold in the flour mixture and knead into a dough.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, prepare the glaze:

Place the chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring, until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Let cool for 3 minutes. Combine the butter, sugar, milk, cocoa powder, and vanilla in a food processor and pulse until fluffy, 1 minute. Add the melted chocolate and pulse until smooth, 1 minute. Let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes to allow the glaze to set.
Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a 1 cm round tip. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes to a height of approximately 6 cm. Starting at the bottom, pipe crispy squares into the frosting in a circle at a 45 degree angle.