Creative Cakes: Chocolate and Orange

This is the second in my series of cake experiments. I love the combination of chocolate and orange (as anyone who observes the sweets I buy – and eat – would confirm). So I was aiming to create the same thing in the form of a cake.

I started by making the cake – a standard chocolate sponge. Before transferring the mixture to the cake tins, I added the zest of an orange and a couple of easy peelers for flavouring.

As with the first cake, I prepared a buttercream filling. I use unsalted butter in baking, both for the cake and for its filling. I added a little more orange zest and a few spoonfuls of orange juice (see photo). If I’d had some orange food colouring, I think I would have added that as well.

I spread the buttercream on the bottom half of the cake.

I then placed the other half of the cake on top.

For the topping, I used a mixture of dark chocolate and orange-flavoured milk chocolate, melted in the microwave.

I added a small amount of butter to soften the chocolate and make the cake easier to cut once it had set.

I spread the chocolate on top of the cake.

On this occasion, I didn’t decorate the cake, but I have a few possible options for doing so:

• Chopped-up chocolate orange (various varieties are available)
• Chopped-up pieces of chocolate orange crisp
• Orange chocolate buttons
• Mini chocolate orange Easter eggs

It’s still going down pretty well though…

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