Chocolate Basketball Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream

"Well, that's like summer in a bowl!" - Joey Tribbiani

I got a heads-up that a snack sign-up sheet was going to be passed around to the parents at Jenson's basketball practice for their end-of-season pizza party.  The moment I arrived at practice I asked the Coach if I could sign up--I wanted the pick of the litter.  I didn't even know what I wanted to make, but I knew it had "cupcake" written all over it.


I Googled images of basketball cupcakes and these were the most commonly decorated ones.  I knew immediately what recipe I'd use and how I'd make it.


For the Chocolate Cupcake, I used my very favorite bundt cake recipe and adjusted the cooking time.  For the Orange Buttercream I used a basic buttercream recipe and added orange extract and Americolor Orange for color.


To decorate, I bought black decorating gel and drew the black basketball lines on each cupcake.  One small container was not enough, so I improvised and used black (not chocolate--black) candy melts with a little bit of shortening.  I melted it in the microwave in a ziploc bag, and cut a tiny corner.  Then I drizzled the rest of the lines on  my remaining cupcakes.  I much prefer the shiny look of the gel, but it worked in a pinch.


To create the orange basketball look, I used a Wilton #16 Open Star.  I worked with very small amounts of buttercream at a time because it warmed quickly in my hands and didn't look as sharp on the cupcakes when it got too warm.  I dotted the tip of the star to fill in all the borders.  Tedious, back-breaking work, let me tell you.  And now I have carpal tunnel in my right hand.





The work was totally worth it!  I ate a cupcake before I took pictures.  I closed my eyes, sighed with happiness, and said aloud, "It's like summer in a bowl!"  (Friends, anyone?)


Chocolate Basketball Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

1 package mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cupcake liners in 24 muffin tins (mine made 30).  In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and fill muffin tins 2/3 full.  Bake for 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Set aside to cool.   Orange Buttercream Frosting:   1 sticks butter, softened 1 tsp orange extract 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups powdered sugar 1/4 cup milk (as needed) This doesn't sound like a lot of frosting, but decorating with the little stars doesn't use much frosting at all.  In a mixer, beat butter until soft and creamy.  Add orange extract, mix.  Add vanilla, mix.  Add powdered sugar and alternate with milk as needed until desired consistency is achieved.  I made this a little firmer than I might normally to make sure my stars kept their shape.  Add powdered sugar to firm; add milk to soften. Frost, and enjoy!   Source for Chocolate Cupcakes:  Allrecipes.com