Orange Chocolate Cake

This is another good way to utilise your leftover mandarin oranges.  I baked this cake recently for my aunt who celebrates her birthday each year on the 7^th day of the Chinese New Year.  Except that I didn’t actually manage to deliver the cake to her as I fell terribly ill after that and couldn’t bring myself out of bed.  And she left for a trip the day after.  So I got to keep (and eat) the (entire) cake.  I then made a mental note to send my aunt a virtual cake through the blog, but only remembered to post it up now.  I have the memory of a gnat these days (and I am not even that old… really, I’m not kidding you :P )

Anyway, this is a real keeper.  The fusion of orange and chocolate is a brilliant one.

The recipe for the fail-proof sponge cake comes from Alex Goh's Baking Code, while the recipe for the orange chocolate ganache is taken from Bake ! by Nick Malgieri.

Sponge cake

Ingredients A:

4 large egg yolks

16 g sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Ingredients B:

4 large egg whites

Ingredients C:

100 g sugar

Ingredients D:

100g all purpose flour

Ingredients E:

50g corn oil

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.  Grease and line a 20 cm round pan with parchment paper.

Whip Ingredients A until light and fluffy.  Whip Ingredients B until soft peak.  Add in Ingredients C and continue whipping until stiff.  Mix the egg white mixture with Ingredients A until well-blended.

Fold in Ingredients D, mix well until well incorporated.  Add in Ingredients E, mix well until well incorporated. 

Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove the cake from the pan immediately when baked.

Orange chocolate ganache

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 tbsp grated orange zest

12 ounces semi sweet chocolate, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

2 tbsp unsalted butter, very soft

1 tbsp orange liqueur (I omitted)

Combine cream, syrup and zest in a saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat, whisking occasionally.  Meanwhile, place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Once the cream mixture boils, pour it through a strainer to discard the zest, over the chocolate in the heatproof bowl.  Wait for 1 minute, then whisk smooth.  Cool to room temperature and whisk in butter, then the liqueur.  About 1 hour before you intend to frost the cake, refrigerate the ganache briefly until it reaches spreading consistency.

Orange syrup

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp orange liqueur (I omitted)

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Stir water and sugar together in a small saucepan and place over low heat.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Pour the syrup into a heatproof bowl, cool to room temperature.  Stir in liqueur and extract.

To assemble the cake, cut the cake into 3 equal layers.  Brush the first layer with orange syrup to moisten the cake and spread ganache over.  Repeat with the 2nd layer, and frost the entire cake with the remaining ganache after you have reached with the 3rd layer.