Chocolate-on-Chocolate Cupcakes

School's out for almost two months, and my productivity level for anything other than child-rearing has plummeted even further. In between caring for an increasingly mobile 7-month-old baby and keeping a rambunctious 5-year-old occupied, free time is practically non-existent. But school holiday is a great time for my boy to bond with his little sister, help around the house, and have fun in the kitchen (well, fun for him anyway; I need to work on my stress level when the kid is in our tiny kitchen). I wanted the boy to understand what is involved in making something from scratch, so on Thursday night I got him to choose a recipe from a book, and yesterday afternoon we went to the supermarket together to pick up the items. After we came home, he measured each ingredient according to the recipe (with my help, as we had to halve the recipe), and then we baked the Chocolate-on-Chocolate Cupcakes adapted from the recipe in The Australian Women's Weekly Allergy-free cooking for kids book that was gifted to us a couple of years ago. The boy enjoyed the process, and loved eating his creation!

I reduced the sugar a little, and added a couple of teaspoons of orange oil to add a depth of flavour to the chocolate. The resulting cake was still too sweet even without the icing, so I will reduce the sugar even more next time.

Chocolate-on-Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients

100g butter, softened
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
2 tablespoons (20g) cocoa powder
1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar
90mL milk
1 egg
1 egg white
2 teaspoons orange oil

Icing
1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar
1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tablespoon water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180degC (160degC if using fan-forced oven), and line a 12-hole 1/3-cup (80mL) muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer until pale. Beat sifted flour, cocoa and half of the sugar alternately with milk into the butter, in two batches until combined.
3. Beat egg and egg white with electric mixer until thick and creamy. Gradually add the remaining sugar, one tablespoon at a time, and beating until sugar dissolves between additions.
4. Gradually beat egg mixture and orange oil into flour mixture until combined.
5. Using a tablespoon, drop batter into each paper case until two-thirds full.

6. Bake for about 20 minutes, then remove from the muffin pan to cool on a wire rack.
7. Make the chocolate icing by sifting the icing sugar and cocoa into a small bowl, and stir in water. Spread icing on cooled cakes.