Chocolate is great on it’s own but add a touch of orange and, in my opinion you have a truly magical combination.
I had a craving for a chocolate orange hit recently, so I decided to make this chocolate orange cake. For the cake base, I adapted Ina Garten’s delicious Beatty’s Chocolate cake recipe, which is deliciously dark, rich, moist and almost sticky cake. I then made a tart orange curd which I spread in the middle of the cake and covered it in a dark chocolate and orange buttercream. Looking for a vegan chocolate cake? Look no further than this divine and not to mention easy one bowl vegan chocolate cake.
So you have a rich,moist and sticky chocolate cake with that sweet tart orange hit in the middle, which provides somewhat of a break from the richness of the chocolate. What could be better than that?
While the outer layer of frosting wasn’t as smooth and perfect as I had hoped (I obviously need lots of practice frosting cakes), the flavours are all there. So don’t let it’s imperfect looks deceive you.
Are you a chocolate orange fiend like me?
Chocolate orange layer cake
Ingredients
- Butter for greasing the pans
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cups good quality cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk shaken
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice
- zest of 1 large orange
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175 Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) and butter 1 8-inch/20cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.
- Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and add the sugar and mix on low speed until combined.
- In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, eggs,orange zest and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry.
- With mixer still on low, add the orange juice and mix until just combined.
- Pour the cake batter into two 20cm prepared cake tins and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a cake rack and cool completely.
