If you’re a fan of Jaffa Cakes, you’re going to love these decadent chocolate orange cupcakes! The light and fluffy sponge is topped with swirls of chocolatey buttercream - which we’ve made even more naughty and fabulous with the addition of just a little orange liqueur!

This scrumptious recipe is very easy to make at home, and a guaranteed crowd-pleaser for your friends and family… if you’re willing to let anyone else get their hands on them, of course! Oh, and to go with them? Why, a chocolate orange martini, naturally!

These chocolate orange fairy cakes are laced with orange gin liqueur.

Boozy Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

125g of softened butter
125g of golden caster sugar
50g milk chocolate, melted*
(2 tsp orange gin liqueur - optional)
2 large eggs
100g of self raising flour
25g cocoa powder
Half a teaspoon of baking powder
Zest of one orange
1 tbsp milk

For the icing:

175g butter
320g icing sugar, sifted
100g melted dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
1-2 tsp Cointreau or orange gin liqueur

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Line your cake tin with cupcake cases.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well. Now gently fold in the orange gin liqueur (if using), flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and orange zest. If you need to, add a little milk until you have a smooth dropping consistency. Finally, stir in the melted milk chocolate.

Into each cake case, put enough mixture to come up just over half way. Place your cake tin in the centre of the oven and bake for 20 minutes, after which time they should have risen and be springy to the touch. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooking, make your butter icing by mixing together all the ingredients until smooth. Wait until the cakes have completely cooled before decorating them with the icing - you can either pipe it from a bag or use the back of a flat knife to spread the icing over the cupcakes.

*The best - and safest - way to melt chocolate is to create a bain marie: break the milk chocolate into little pieces in a heatproof glass bowl, then carefully balance it over a pan of hot water. Don’t let the bottom of the bowl dip into the water - you just want the heat to melt the chocolate without cooking it! You can stir the chocolate with a wooden spoon to help it along. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.