Pecan and Orange Marmalade Cupcakes

My second entry for this month's Iron Cupcake challenge. I got this recipe from one of my favourite recipe books - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. I was given some delicious homemade marmalade so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the recipe. The cake was really delicious straight out of the oven with a generous dollop of marmalade on top. I actually remembered to take some pictures whilst making the cake so this will be a faily pictorial post :)

Delicious homemade marmalade - thanks Pat!

Orange juice mixture

Lots of batter as I doubled the recipe

Made about 32 cupcakes!

Topped with marmalade whilst still warmThought it looked a little plain so I roasted some whole pecans and put them on top

Cupcakes

55g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

125ml corn oil

60ml fresh orange juice (juice of approx. 1 small orange)

Grated zest of 1 small orange

80g thick-cut orange marmalade

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g plain flour, sifted

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

180g golden caster sugar

60g pecan nuts, toasted on a baking tray in a hot oven for a few minutes and then chopped

To decorate

Extra orange marmalade (slightly warmed if difficult to spread)

Toasted pecan nuts

• 
  
  Preheat the oven to 160C
• 
  
  In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, corn oil, orange juice, orange zest, marmalade and vanilla extract.  Set aside.
• 
  
  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and set aside.
• 
  
  Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, until the mixture is light, fluffy and quite thick.
• 
  
  Slowly add the butter, oil and juice mixture, keeping the beater on a low speed, until it is all combined.
• 
  
  Add one-third of the flour mixture to the combined egg, sugar and oil mixture and beat until just combined. 
• 
  
  Pour in another third of the flour and beat again.
• 
  
  Repeat with the last third of flour.
• 
  
  Gently fold in the pecans.
• 
  
  Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases filling them 3/4 full (They rise a fair bit - some of mine overflowed!)
• 
  
  Bake for about 25 minutes until slightly raised and golden brown.
• 
  
  Remove from the oven and while the cupcakes are still warm, top each one with 1 teaspoon marmalade and spread all over the top. Sprinkle with extra pecans if you wish. 
• 
  
  Serve immediately if possible.