Chocolate Orange Shortbread and many cupcakes.

I've just downloaded the pictures of recent cakes Ive been baking and realised I'd totally forgotten to show you all the cupcakes I made for the Queens Diamond Jubilee for a friends bake sale in work.
so quite a bit late but oh well here they are:

I'm definitely going to be using the crown cutter I got to make some biscuits for a certain friend who thinks she is a princess.

I also made some vanilla cupcakes and chocolate orange cupcakes for another bake sale:

And some rude cupcakes for a hen party (avert your eyes children)

Any way in between all this I have found a little time to do some non cupcake baking in the form of chocolate orange dipped shortbread. I had half a chocolate orange left and I'd been meaning to make shortbread for a while so I thought I'd combine the two to make the shortbread extra naughty. Here it is:

and pre dipping:

I think I definitely prefer it with the chocolate. Shortbread is also a really simple recipe that doesn't require many ingredients unless you want to jazz it up with fillings such as cherry or chocolate to dip in. Here's how it's made:

Makes 8 wedges:

Chocolate Orange Shortbread 

175g Plain Flour
Pinch of salt
55g Caster Sugar (Plus extra for sprinkling)
115g Butter chopped into small pieces, (plus extra for greasing)
1/2 Chocolate orange (or any chocolate you wish to dip)

You could also add a grating of orange zest to the shortbread for that extra zing.

Pre heat the oven to 150deg C and grease an 8 inch tart tin. Mix together the flour salt and sugar then rub in the butter into the dry ingredients. Work in the butter until you have a soft dough however do not over work or the shortbread will be tough not crumbly. Add a tablespoon of water if needed.

Lightly press the dough into the tart tin or shape on a baking tray and pinch the edges.

Mark into 8 pieces and prick all over with a fork and bake in the oven for 45 - 50 mins until firm an lightly coloured
.
Sprinkle with sugar and leave to cool in the tin before cutting into wedges.

In a bowl over pan of simmering water melt the chocolate until fully melted, then dip half of each piece of shortbread in or spread or drizzle the chocolate over. Leave to set in the fridge on a plate covered in clingfilm or greaseproof paper.

Once the chocolate is set store in a biscuit tin, or as what happened with my batch hand them out to be eaten all at once.

Till next time

Cupcake Kris