Pot de Creme Cupcakes With Orange Curd

Don't let my lack of decorating skills fool you-these are pretty special cupcakes. Granted, this is only the second time in my life I've actually made cupcakes, but that's not why they're special-but I'm getting ahead of the story.

Yesterday, I tried making a poundcake and the bottom of the tube pan leaked and well, you can imagine the mess. I thought I saw where the gap was in the pan and (I thought) was able to bend it just so. The second cake leaked as well, but at least that time I'd thought to stick a pan in the bottom of the oven, just in case.

A pound of butter, ten eggs and the last of my all purpose flour gone, I resolved to go out in the morning and buy new goods and a baking pan-after all, it was for my husband's birthday.

Thursday morning we had what looked at first like a blizzard. I gave up, went in the kitchen and using my last two eggs and 3/4 cup of heavy cream proceeded to make the Pot de Creme at Chocolate Shavings.

A few hours later the sun came out, melted the snow and I went out to do the marketing. I got home about 3PM and decided to start baking cupcakes and filling them with the Pot de Creme and topping them with frosting and the orange curd from Tuesday. I'm an idiot, have I mentioned this? OK, as long as we're all clear on that point.

As my husband was born in Harrisburg, PA I thought it would be fun to use the recipe for cake on the back of the Hershey's chocolate box. You know, sort of a nod to his heritage. If you've ever wondered just how bad your eyesight is getting, but didn't want to pay for an eye exam, consider trying to read the recipes off the back of that box. In fact, I'm not going to reprint it here (you can google it easily enough) because I don't feel like going blind squinting to read it again. I used the frosting recipe as well.

Know what? It was fantastic. I had my doubts, particularly when it called for pouring boiling water into the batter, but it turned out just as perfect as chocolate cake can be. It was an excellent contrast with the very rich fillings and frosting.