Chocolate orange cake

This is a bold claim, but I'm pretty sure this is the best cake I have ever made. Luckily I had saved the occasion for baking my best-cake-ever for one of my closest friend's birthdays. The cake itself has a whole blitzed up orange in it, meaning that it is not only really orangey (and very chocolatey), but also super moist. It is basically a Terry's chocolate orange in cake form.

The recipe is based on the BBC Good Food recipe (but I personally think mine looks much prettier!)

To make the chocolate orange cake you will need:
1 large orange
100g dark chocolate
3 eggs
280g caster sugar
240ml sunflower oil
250g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
2tsp baking powder

100ml double cream
150g plain chocolate
Terry's chocolate orange pieces to decorate

Set a pan of boiling water on and push an apple corer through the middle of the orange. Place the orange in the boiling water for 20 minutes to soften it up. Blitz the whole orange and set to one side.

Preheat the oven to 190°C and grease and line a 20cm loose-bottomed pan.

Melt 100g of dark chocolate. Whisk the 3 eggs, 280g of caster sugar and 240ml of sunflower oil before adding to this the melted dark chocolate and blitzed orange.

Sift into the wet ingredients the 250g plain flour, 25g cocoa powder and 2 tsp baking powder and fold all the ingredients together. Pour the chocolate orange cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes. The cake will be done when a clean knife inserted into the middle comes out with a few crumbs attached - as this cake is so moist the knife won't come out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin.

To make the chocolate ganache, pour 100ml double cream into a saucepan and add the 150g plain chocolate. Whisk the two together until combined and allow to cool - the ganache will thicken over about 30 minutes to 1 hour. Smother the ganache all over the chocolate orange sponge and adorn with pieces of Terry's chocolate orange (or if you cannot find one with some orange zest).

I think this cake may be making an appearance at many more birthdays in the future...

Comments

Beetroot soda bread

This is a super-simple loaf to make when you don't want to wait hours for it to prove. I love the pink-hue you get from adding beetroot to this loaf. It is a good loaf to make to use up the dregs of bags of flour. Beetroot soda bread Makes 1 loaf 300g beetroot (I used vacuum packed) 1 tsp fennel seeds 100ml plain full-fat yogurt 400g flour (I used 300g plain white and 100g wholemeal flour) 1 tsp sea salt 2 tsp baking powder 50g seeds (I used sesame) Preheat the oven to 220C. Puree the beetroot with the fennel and yogurt in a food processor until smooth. Mix the flour with the sea salt, baking powder and seeds. Fold the liquid beetroot mixture through this. As it comes together you can form into a ball with your hands but do not work too much or the finished loaf will be tough. Scatter some flour on a baking tray and place your ball of dough on top. You can add some more seeds to the top. Dust with flour and cut a deep cross into the top of...

Sourdough discard blueberry and chocolate cupcakes

Since having our sourdough starter (Dough Exotic) we have had to be creative about how we use the discard. This recipe is based on The Boy Who Bakes banana and chocolate recipe; we didn't have any over-ripe bananas so used an extra egg. Sourdough discard blueberry and chocolate cupcakes Makes 20 cupcakes 200g sourdough discard 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 eggs 150g softened unsalted butter 185g granulated sugar 150g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp table salt 125g blueberries 125g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks Preheat the oven to 180C and l ine muffin tin with cake cases. Stir the sourdough discard, vanilla extract and eggs. In a separate bowl whisk the softened butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add this to the sourdough bowl. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir through the blueberries and dark chocolate. Spoon into the cupcake cases and bake in the preheated over for 22 minutes.

Frozen yogurt breakfast bowl

I feel as if Instagram and Pinterest are awash with photos of breakfast bowls containing ingredients I just can't get my hands on in Wales (mail order acai berries anyone?) I did want to jump on the trend bandwagon however and so have been enjoying frozen yogurt breakfast bowls instead (sprinkled with some homemade granola of course - this batch has cashews rather than ginger in though). I make this in my smoothie maker - anything with the ability to blitz frozen fruit will do. I can thoroughly recommend this as a breakfast to get you kick-started in spring! To make 1 portion of frozen yogurt breakfast bowl you will need: A handful of frozen berries - the major supermarkets do this really well 1 banana 1 tablespoon of greek yogurt A splash of milk From experience of multiple attempts at this, you need to order the ingredients in the blender so that the banana and yogurt are nearest the blade (to create a kind of paste) with the frozen berries ...

Classic Caggs

Search This Blog