Chocolate Orange Cake - It's not Terry's I made it (Cakes)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	Cakes
Date:	22/01/06 (6920 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It tastes of chocolate and orange

Disadvantages: Put on the pounds just by looking at it.

I found this recipe a while ago but as I don't buy chocolate orange very often I hadn't made it til recently. I say recently because I received 3 Terry's chocolate oranges for Christmas. A plain chocolate one (my favourite) a milk chocolate one and the new mint one which isn't orange at all.

This recipe is basically for a chocolate cake but the special bit which really makes it tasty, is the topping which you can change depending on your personal tastes.

Ingredients

3 eggs
150g/5oz self-raising flour, sifted
25g/1oz cocoa powde, sifted
175g/6oz caster sugar
250g/9oz butter, softened
175g/6oz icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons milk
25g/1oz chocolate orange(approx. 3 segments), melted

Method

Before you start you will need to preheat your oven to 180C/350F or Gas Mark 4 and then grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin and line it with greaseproof paper.

Put your eggs, flour, cocoa powder, caster sugar and 175g/6oz of the butter into a bowl and beat well until you have a lovely smooth mixture.

Spoon this mixture into your tin levelling the surface and then make a slight well in the centre. Bake this for 40 minutes or until it is that nice spongey way on top. Turn out your cake and put on a wire rack to cool.

To make the topping beat the remaining butter into the icing sugar and milk until smooth and divide this into two bowls. In one of the bowls add the melted chocolate and fold this in gently. You should now have 2 buttercream mixtures, one white and one chocolate.

Spoon both of these buttercreams over the top of your cake and swirl them about to make a marble type effect. A fork is good for doing this as you get a pretty pattern on top which looks very professional.

All that's left to do is to eat it and this cake gives you 6 servings. It contains 700cals in total so don't eat it all in one go even though it is very tempting.

I thought I was very generous to share my orange with my family in this way - they had to practically tie me down though to get it from me - only joking.

Now for the best bit - the variations. There are lots of different things you can do to change the flavour of this basic recipe, whether it's adding flavouring to the actual cake itself or changing the buttercream topping. I would like to try it with some orange flavouring to the cake and have just plain chocolate in the buttercream or try using some mint chocolate in the buttercream as I am a big fan of mint too. I love experimenting with flavourings and a simple cake can be made to be so different by adding various toppings too. If you aren't such a fan of the chocolate buttercream try omitting the chocolate and adding fruit pieces such as orange segments on top of the cream to decorate or use chocolate sprinkles or hundreds and thousands to give a different effect. This is especially good if it's for children.

If anyone does decide to try any different variations of this one do let me know how it turns out. I am always excited in trying any new recipes which include chocolate cake. Now I am off to hide in a corner and pretend I don't need to lose a few pounds. Enjoy.

Summary: tastes great whichever variety you decide to make.