Orange Dark Chocolate Cake

A rich Dark Chocolate cake, with White chocolate chips, encased in a decadent Orange Fudgy White Chocolate buttercream. 

 

This rich and decadent cake takes parts from a simple chocolate cake, a chocolate fudge cake and a Devils chocolate cake. This cake is moist, delicious and a fantastic cake to make.




Equipment:

  • A pan and hob space

  • Two large bowl

  • Tbsp & tsp measure and scales

  • Electric whisk

  • Two large cake tins

  • Two wooden spoons

  • Two microwave safe jug’s

 

Ingredients:

  • 200g Dark Chocolate

  • 200g Butter, plus extra for greasing

  • 1 tbsp Coffee granules

  • 1 cup of water

  • 170g Self-raising flour

  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

  • 1 tsp baking powder

  • 200g Muscovado Sugar

  • 200g Caster Sugar

  • 25g Cocoa Powder

  • 4 eggs

  • 75ml buttermilk

  • 100g White chocolate chips

  • 100g Butter, leave this out while cooking

  • 225g icing sugar, 

  • 100g White Chocolate

  • 200g butter, leave this out while cooking

  • 450g icing sugar

  • 200g White Chocolate

  • 1 tsp Orange extract

  • Orange food Gel

 

Method:

  1. Turn your oven to 180C/ 160C Fan/ gas 4

  2. Melt 200g Dark Chocolate, 200g Butter, coffee granules and 1 cup of water in the pan, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon on a low heat. 

  3. Once there are no longer any lumps in the chocolate mix, take off the heat and leave to cool while you prepare the dry ingredients mix.

  4. Prepare the dry ingredient mix, mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, sugars and 25g baking powder into a bowl and mix with the other wooden spoon, making sure the large lumps of Muscovado sugar have been completely incorporated.

  5. Into the second bowl add the eggs and buttermilk and whisk for 8 mins until doubled in size.

  6. With all three mixes ready, add the chocolate mix into the dry ingredient mix and mix vigorously to combine, ensuring to incorporate as much of the flour as possible.

  7. Then fold in the egg mixture to this chocolate mix. Folding?, glad you asked, it’s simple to do. Hard to do correctly. I suggest using a silicone spatula, scoop the mixture off of the edges of the bowl and in a single stroke cut through the centre of your mixture. Repeat this again, making sure to pull the bottom of the chocolate mixture to the top. This process takes a while. But it is all worth it for that rise.

  8. Once fully incorporated, fold in the chocolate chips

  9. Grease the two cake tins with butter and divide the cake mix into the two tins. I’d suggest using a ladle as the mixture will be very liquidy.

  10. Place in the oven for 30 - 45 minutes, check the mixture after 30 minutes by taking a blunt knife and pushing it into the most risen part of the mix. If the mixture, or any of the mixture on the knife is still “wet” then place back in the oven. At this point I would suggest you switch over the two tins if you have put them on different shelves, to help them cook more evenly. Check every 10 - 15 minutes afterward to see if it is cooked.

  11. Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool completely. I would suggest leaving it 10 minutes before you attempt to remove the cake layers from the tins, and then leave them to cool completely.

  12. It is very important that you let the cake layers cool completely, if you don’t then the butter icing will melt. I’m talking from experience, it is not fun when your cake starts falling apart… Use this cooling time to do some much needed washing up in preparation for making the icing.

  13. Now make the icing, cream the butter (100g), which you’ve hopefully left out while cooking, and the (225g) icing sugar together. Cream?, glad you asked, it is another one of those techniques you are just expected to know in any recipe. Basically use a wooden spoon and push the butter into the icing sugar. Tilt the bowl slightly and very slowly push the butter into the icing sugar by pushing the spoon into the side of the bowl, then take the butter mix away from the bowl edge and scoop in more icing sugar. For icing sugar specifically make sure to go slowly. Otherwise you, and your kitchen space, will end up covered in icing sugar. Continue this process, yes it’s a long process, until there is no more icing sugar to incorporate. Now you have buttercream icing.

  14. Mix in the Orange Extract into the buttercream icing

  15. Now melt (100g) of the White chocolate, if you brought some more you can melt another 50g for this icing if you want it to be more rich. Place in one of the microwave safe jugs and melt in the microwave using 10 second intervals. Be very careful when melting white chocolate, it can very easily burn.

  16. Add a small amount of the orange food gel to the chocolate and mix to create orange coloured chocolate in the jug, add this into the icing and mix until combined.

  17. Take the layers of cake and place one of them on a cutting board, this saves you having to transfer it over after construction.

  18. Spoon on the icing, no need to be neat about it, no-one will see it. But make sure to spread it over the top of the first cake layer.

  19. Now add the second cake layer on-top of the previous layer, making sure that the buttericing connects the two layers.

  20. Now make another batch of buttercream icing, but using 200g of butter, 450g of icing sugar and 200g of chocolate, I’d also suggest doubling the orange extract and orange gel you use. 

  21. Use this second, larger batch of buttercream icing, to spoon over the two tiered cake and spread to cover the cake.

  22. Place this in the fridge for the buttericing to set, it can last several days when stored in the fridge.

  23. When clearing up the two jugs you used to melt the chocolate, peel away the chocolate left in the jugs to create a white a few white and orange chocolate shards, place these ontop of the cake as decoration.

  24. When you want to cut a slice or two, just remove the cake from the fridge and help yourself.