Chocolate Spice Cake with Citrus Spiced Rum Cream Cheese Frosting

Last weekend The Good Husband and I had dinner at our aunt and uncle's house. They provided the dinner and I brought the dessert. I had seen this recipe the weekend before on a new episode of Giada at Home, on the Food Network. It was her Halloween episode and she made this Chocolate Spice Cake. I thought it would be a good idea to turn the recipe into cupcakes and then frost them with a citrus spiced rum cream cheese frosting.
The cake turned out super moist and dense. The texture was soft but heavy. The cream cheese frosting provided a good contrast to the heavy spice of the cake. The orange flavor was the most prominent in the frosting, with the spiced rum a more subtle flavor. I would definitely make this again.

Chocolate Spice Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
~Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners and set aside.

~In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice.

~In a large bowl, beat the sugars, oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla extract to blend. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Fill each cupcake liner 3/4 of the way full and smooth the top with a spatula.

~Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes for 10 minutes.


Citrus Spiced Rum Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup of butter, softened
1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon spiced rum
zest plus juice of one orange

Directions:
~In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy.

~Mix in the rum, orange juice and zest and slowly add the powdered sugar to the desired sweetness and thickness.

Frosts 12 cupcakes

recipes by: Giada De Laurentiis and The Good Wife