I love the combination of chocolate and orange and thought it would be worth trying in a cake. The base cake is a traditional chocolate sponge filled with freshly made orange curd and smothered in chocolate icing. This is my favourite basic cake recipe as it isn't dry.
For the chocolate sponge:
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
125g self-raising flour, sifted
50g of cocoa, sifted
1tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Butter and line two round cake tins. If you only have one tin, use this and gently cut the cake in half once cooked and cooled.
- Beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. This can be done by hand or in a mixer.
- Mix in the eggs, flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt.
- Divide the mixture between to cake tins.
- Bake for 40 minutes checking that the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer. If the skewer is clean when it comes out of the cake then it is cooked.
- Leave the cakes to cool
Whilst the cakes are baking and cooling make up the orange curd.
For the orange curd:
60g caster sugar
75ml orange juice
1 tablespoons water
40g unsalted butter
1 yolk
1 tablespoons cornflower
Method
For the orange curd:
60g caster sugar
75ml orange juice
1 tablespoons water
40g unsalted butter
1 yolk
1 tablespoons cornflower
Method
- Melt the sugar and cornflower in a pan.
- Gradually stir in the orange juice until smooth.
- Cook stirring until the mixture thickens then take off the heat and stir in the butter and yolks.
- Cool and place in the fridge for an hour to set.
- Spread between the two cakes.
To make a luxurious icing for the cake, melt 100g butter and 100g dark chocolate. Either do this in a bain marie or on a very low setting of your microwave to prevent the chocolate from burning. Use a spatula to gently cover all the cake.
