christmas cupcakes - take one

I made these Christmas tree cupcakes for a Christmas party I had with my friends. They turned out really cute, but those trees broke like crazy. I made 3 times as many as I needed, and I still had to put some broken ones on my cupcakes because they were just so fragile! Here is a picture of my Christmas tree graveyard, and then my cupcakes.

chocolate orange cupcakes

My sister-in-law requested these for her birthday cupcakes. I was at a loss on how to invent them myself, so I took the easy route.

First, get a chocolate cake mix and two chocolate oranges (I got one dark and one milk chocolate). Prepare your cake mix according to package directions. Take 1/2-ish of one of your chocolate oranges and chop it into little pieces. Stir those pieces into your cake mix, and bake them.

While they are cooling, make some orange chocolate ganache. Ganache is super easy, and super delicious.

In a double boiler (which, to me, is a silver bowl placed over a pot of simmering water), melt 4 oz of your chocolate orange (I don't remember how many ounces a whole orange is, but I know that Mr. Webb and I just ate a couple slices and called the rest good). Stir in a 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Stir until the ganache looks nice a smooth. Then dip your cupcakes in the ganache. Let cool, and then enjoy!