Delicious Orange- Chocolate Cake

                                                           Orange-Chocolate Cake

There can not be any person living on this earth that will not 'just love' this cake! Many find it to be the 'best' cake they've ever eaten!

I made this cake recently, for my little brother (cousin's) engagement; iced it with 'ganache' and decorated with fondant roses, arum lilies, lemon blossoms and leaves and, oranges and their leaves made of egg-less almond marzipan.It's been sometime since I made it  now but, people are still

raving about it! In fact I made a number of this cake again, a few days back, to take to 'IIT Kharagpur' for Richie's friends and, it was a super-duper hit again! Whether you are a chocolate lover or not,I'm sure you'll just love it! 

Ingredients:-  

(A) For the cake -- (1) Flour- 150 gm.     (2) 11/2 tsp.     (3) Vanilla extract- 1 Tbsp.     (4) Fresh, unsalted butter- 260 gm.    (5) Sugar- 200 gm.     (6) Eggs- 5 large or, 6 medium     (7) semi-sweet dark chocolate- 300 gm.,chopped into small pieces     (8) Orange juice, preferably fresh- 100 ml.     (9) Orange zest, grated- of 11/2 medium oranges     (10) 1 Tbsp.orange liqueur or 1/4 tsp. orange essence (optional). 

(B)  For the Chocolate-glaze icing --  (1) Fresh unsalted butter- 1 Tbsp.    (2) semi-sweet dark chocolate-200 gm.     (3) Heavy cream ( fresh 'malai' will also do)- 220 gm.     (4) Powdered sugar- 4 Tbsp.     

(5) Vanilla essence- 1 tsp.

(C)  For decoration--  (1) a few marzipan oranges and leaves;     (2) some orange blossoms made with white 'fondant' along with leaves and twigs of green fondant;     (3) a few roses and rose-buds made with white fondant;     (5) a few Arum lilies made with white fondant;     (6) silver-coated sugar balls.

Method:-

(A)  Cake -     1. Set oven temp. at 160 C; prepare 10 inch tube-pan by lining with greased butter paper.

For the bigger cake shown in the above picture, I'd used double the recipe so I double-lined that pan and reduced the temp. to 150 C. It took 1 1/2 hrs. Some batter was surplus so I made two cupcakes too.

2. Cut butter into small chunks. Butter and chopped chocolate should be at room temp. Fill a small pan 1/4 with water and put chocolate, butter, juice and zest in another saucepan that can be fitted on the mouth of the pan containing water. 

Now, put the pan with water on medium heat and hold the pan with chocolate-butter on it's mouth, to melt slowly. Direct heat or high heat 'seizes' the chocolate, i.e. it'll become a 'lump' instead of melting so the water should be barely simmering and should not touch the bottom of the pan containing chocolate. If the water comes to a vigorous boil, reduce the heat to low. Stir occasionally. Once the chocolate and butter are nicely melted and mixed, remove from fire and keep aside to cool. Liqueur or essence can also be added at this stage, if desired ( I used essence).

3. Sieve flour and baking powder together 3-4 times, to mix nicely and, keep aside till required.    

 4.  Beat eggs, powdered sugar and vanilla in a mixer, first at 'medium' and then at 'high' till the mixture is thick, creamy and more than double in size.

5.  Pour the cool chocolate mixture over the egg mixture and fold gently to incorporate. Care should be taken not to deflate the eggs much so, avoid beating; cut-and-fold method is best.

6.  Sprinkle sieved flour over the chocolate-egg mixture and fold with very gentle hands till all the flour is mixed and no lumps remain. It will be a pouring-consistency batter.

7.  Tip the batter in the prepared pan and bake till done. It should take approx. one hour. My bigger cake took 11/2 hrs. as I'd doubled the quantity for it. When done, take out of the oven and let it cool in the tin; only loosen the sides after about 10 minutes.

8.  Now, for the smaller cake too, proceed in the above manner only. The quantity of the batter will be excessive so you can make 4-5 more cup cakes which are a favorite of children any time! I used a 6 inch pan for the smaller cake; kept the temp. at 150 C only and it was done in one hour. Let both the cakes cool completely.

(B)  Icing -    The best glaze for this cake is- the Chocolate Ganache and, this is how we prepare it-

1. Put chopped chocolate, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.

2. Take cream in a saucepan and bring it to the boiling point. Immediately pour this boiling cream over chocolate in the bowl, cover with a lid and leave for 5 minutes.

3. Stir the mixture gently so that melted chocolate, butter and sugar are nicely mixed. This is our Ganache for the icing. Do not beat it as we do not want any air to be mixed in it. Ganache should be absolutely smooth. Let it cool slightly.

4. Put both the cakes on wire racks and place each rack on a tray (to catch drippings). Pour warm ganache gently on the cake, starting with the center and moving outwards. Pour around the edges also so that sides are also nicely covered. If any areas are left out, apply some icing there with a knife. Let it set for a few minutes. If you like thicker icing on your cake, pour it on the cake a second time. This time it should be cooler but still warm.

5.  Ice both the cakes and cupcakes in the same manner. For the bigger cake double quantity of icing should be made. Let cool and set. Can be put in the fridge also, for setting. You'll get a nice shining icing.

6. Collect all the dripped icing from the trays, mix it with the left-over icing and keep in the fridge. It'll make nice 'truffles'! ( see my blog of 5/31/10).

(C) -   Decoration-      I decorated the cake with fondant  flowers, marzipan oranges and sugar balls but, you can decorate it any way you feel like; it'll taste just as great!  

Enjoy!