What is better than chocolate and orange? The bittersweet flavor of the chocolate and the tangy-ness of the orange collide in your mouth and give you an amazing taste! I thought, why not turn this delicious flavor into a fluffy amazing cake?
Have you ever had a Jaffa Cake? It’s this little British biscuit cake thing made from a layer of orange sponge, topped with orange jam, and all coated in dark chocolate. This doesn’t have the jam, and it’s less cookie like, but it’s got a similar vibe.
And I love that you can eat this cake any time of year. It’s not strictly summery or wintery.
Why Should I Make This Cake?
Well, let me list the reasons. I LOVE CHOCOLATE ORANGE! Just in case you didn’t know. The flavors compliment each other and create a beautiful taste in your mouth! It is the fluffiest cake you have ever seen because it uses the reverse creaming method. It has a subtle and beautiful orange flavor paired with an amazingly smooth chocolate ganache to provide a simple but gorgeous combo. To add pack an extra punch of flavor I like to top the cake with simple candies orange slices, tasty and pretty! Also, it is extremely easy! Theres no stacking, or piping, it’s just plop the cake on a stand, pour the ganache on top, and top with the oranges! Yum!
The Cake
This cake is amazing! It has a fluffy and buttery texture with a light crumb that melts in your mouth. What I love the most about it is that it has a subtle orange flavor, but you know that it’s there. To get this, we use fresh orange juice and orange zest. The thing about orange zest, is that is is flavor packed, so most of the orange flavor comes from that. Adding orange juice gives the cake flavor and moisture, two in one! Now, let me just say I am not a fan of vegetable oil, but it is necessary in this recipe to build up fat and get you a nice fluffy cake. The first time I made this I didn’t have any oil. FLAT SPONGE. So in the whole, you need that oil.
The Chocolate Ganache
Chocolate Ganache. It sounds like some super fancy thing but really it’s just cream and chocolate. The hardest part is chopping the chocolate. I’ve seen different ways of making ganache, but heating cream and pouring it over chopped chocolate seems to be the best method to me. This gently melts the chocolate giving you a smooth, silky ganache. BUT. You have to make sure your chocolate is chopped evenly. If it isn’t, then there will still be big chunks of chocolate that don’t get fully melted, leaving you with a thin and lumpy ganache. If this happens to you, fear not! Sticking it in the microwave for 10 seconds or so is usually enough to melt those chocolate chunks. Then you can stir it until smooth and thick.
Step By Step
As I have mentioned, this cake comes together really quickly. Here are the steps.
Step one: Sift dry ingredients
Step two: Add butter, vanilla, and milk
Step three: Whisk the rest of the wet ingredients
Step four: Add to batter
Step five: Bake
Step six: Make ganache
Step seven: Pour ganache
Step eight: Enjoy!
Not very many steps, and they aren’t super difficult. Bam!
Orange Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an eight inch pan with butter, line with parchment paper round, then grease the parchment paper.
- Sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter, vanilla, orange zest, and 1/4 cup of the milk and mix on medium speed until everything is moistened, around one minute.
- In a small bowl, whisk the remaining milk, oil, eggs, and orange juice until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, add the egg mixture to the batter in two additions. Mix for around fifteen seconds between the two. A few lumps is ok.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and bake for 20-22 minutes. The cake should bounce back when poked, and an inserted toothpick will come out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
- Heat the cream over medium heat until simmering. Make sure it doesn’t boil, because that’s too hot! Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it rest for 3 minutes. Then mix it slowly with a spoon or spatula until combined. Pour over the completely cooled cake and top with candied orange slices or orange zest.
- Enjoy!
Notes
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