Chocolate Cupcakes in Orange Peels — Twice the Flavor and Half the Hassle

What do cupcakes and oranges have in common? Nothing actually, but combine the two and you're in for a real treat! However, we're not talking about just combining the flavors, because after all, who hasn't had a chocolate and orange flavored sweet treat before? No, we're taking it one step further and we're putting the cupcake IN the orange! You'll be able to blissfully enjoy these fruity chocolatey delicacies even more knowing you're saving money on cupcake liners and reducing packaging waste! Yummy!

You'll need (for 6 portions):

• 4 organic oranges
• 3 eggs
• 8½ oz sugar (7 oz for the cupcakes + 1½ oz for the frosting)
• 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
• 5 oz flour
• 1½ oz cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4½ oz melted butter
• 5⅓ oz cream cheese
• 5⅓ oz cream

Here's how:

1. Halve three oranges and scrape the pulp out of the inside. Place the hollowed out orange peels in the molds of a muffin pan.

2. Squeeze the juice of the oranges in a bowl. Add the eggs, sugar (7 oz), and vanilla flavoring and mix everything with a hand mixer. 

3. Add the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and butter to the batter and mix everything again.

4. Scoop the chocolate cupcake batter into the orange peels, stopping about ⅓ of an inch from the top of the orange half. Bake at 360°F for 25 minutes. 

5. Beat the cream cheese, cream, and remaining 1½ oz of sugar until a whipped frosting has formed. 

6. Frost the cooled cupcakes with the whipped frosting and garnish with some orange zest.

Even if you've had quite the number of cupcakes and muffins in your day, how many times have you had one baked directly into an orange? At least now you can say once. If you're really loving the whole baked fruits for dessert, be sure to try our recipe for Baked Apple in Cheesecake