Chocolate Orange Cake

This is a great tasking chocolate cake that is easy to make and will surely be a hit.
If you don't like the strong orange flavour you can add less orange juice to the mix
You will need two 20cm cake tins for this.

Makes: 12-14 servings

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan. Grease with extra butter the two 20cmcake tins
  2. Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, orange zest and orance juice into a food processor and beat until well combined, thick and creamy. Spoon the mixture evenly into the prepared tins and smooth the surface. Bake on the same shelf in the centre of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until you can insert a wooden squewer into the cake and remove without any mix remaining on the squewer.
  3. Remove the tins from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack. 
  4. To make the chocolate icing, place the chocolate peices in a high quality mixing bowl. Then gently heat the cream in a medium non-stick saucepan until hot but not quite simmering, stirring occasionally, then pour over the chocolate pieces. Stir once and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Stir the melted chocolate into the cream just enough to combine - if not all the chocolate melts then return the mixing bowl to above a bowl of boiling water only until the chocolate melts. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.
  5. Place one of the sponges onto your serving tray. Spread a quarter of the chocolate icing thickly over the surface and top with the second sponge. Mix the milk with the chocolate icing until smooth. Using a palette knife, spread the whole cake thinly with the thinned chocolate icing, filling in the areas where the two cakes meet. Place in the fridge for about 40 minutes to set. (This layer will help the rest of the icing cover the cake more smoothly and doesn’t need to be perfectly neat.)
  6. Once the first layer of icing has set spread the icing all over the top of the cake and down the sides as smoothly as possible using a palette knife. Leave for 2–3 hours to set.

 

Ingredients:

  • 75g cocoa powder
  • 2 oranges, zested and juiced
  • 225g softened butter
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 225g self raising flower
  • 1 tsp baking powder
For the chocolate icing
  • 300ml double cream
  • 300g dark chocolate broken into small peices
  • 3 tbsp milk