This weekend I made a cake to rival all cakes, or at least on the taste scale as we all know decoration isn’t my strong point, although this one did actually look quite pretty! It was my little sisters birthday last week so I wanted to make something super delicious for her, I can't really get away with giving everyone my usual brownies any more!
She loves chocolate cake so I decided I would make my fool proof rich and delicious chocolate cake so if she wasn't as big a fan of the icing and orange flavour, she would still have the main flavour she loves. For a pretty extra I made candied oranges to put on top. When I began my business selling chocolates I would cover my candied oranges in dark chocolate and they were delicious!
If chocolate orange is just what you fancy, here is the recipe and instructions on how to make it!
INGREDIENTS:
For the candied oranges you will need:
- 350ml water
- 230g granulated sugar
- 1 ½ oranges (cut into thin slices)
For the cake you will need:
- 200g Dark chocolate
- 200g Salted butter
- 1 tbsp Instant coffee granules mixed with 125ml of water or 2 shots of espresso topped up with water to make 125ml
- 85g Self-raising flour
- 85g Plain flour
- ¼ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 200g Dark muscovado sugar
- 200g Caster sugar
- 25g Cocoa powder
- 3 medium free range eggs
- 75ml Sour Cream
For the icing you will need:
- 200g Salted butter
- 400g Icing sugar
- 1 tbsp Milk
- 2 tsp Orange blossom water
And finally to decorate you will need:
METHOD:
You will need to make your candied oranges a day in advance, so start with these.
- In a wide saucepan mix together your sugar and water on a medium heat.
- Once the sugar has dissolved lower the heat and gently add your orange slices
- Leave them to simmer for 15 minuets then turn them over and continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until see through
- Place on a wire rack to dry out over night
Once these are set over night you can begin the cake.
- Preheat your over to 160 degrees celsius grease and line a 15inch cake tin with grease-proof paper
- Melt your chocolate, butter, coffee and water together in a bowl in the microwave, do this for a minute at a time to avoid burning the chocolate
- Add all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix
- In one final bowl, mix together your free range eggs and sour cream
- Lastly, combine all ingredients together in one big bowl. I suggest adding the wet mixtures on top of the dry ones and whisking, don’t over mix, just combine fully
- Pour this into your cake tin and bake for 1 hour and 15/20 min
- Leave the cake to cool completely
While the cake is cooling you can make your icing by simply combining all ingredients and using an electric mixer until you reach the desired consistency. You can do this by hand if you are feeling brave!
Now you can begin assembling your masterpiece!
- Gently spread over 1 coat of the butter cream over the entire cake, don't worry if there are gaps at this point
- Freeze the cake for 15 minuets to help this act as your foundations of buttercream!
- Use the rest of the icing to completely cover your cake
- Decorate using your candied oranges however you like
- Drizzle with some dark chocolate to finish
- Sit back and admire your hard work and then reward yourself with a giant slice and a cup of tea!
If you make this at home please don't forget to share using #bakingwithalana, I would love to see your pictures!
