Chocolate Orange Cake

The Ultimate Chocolate Cake

Whenever we need a good recipe, we search out Felicity Cloake's  ultimate recipes online at the Guardian Newspapers lifestyle section -  www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle -  in which she makes and compares a variety of  chefs recipes to come up with an ultimate dish.  This chocolate cake recipe is all it should be, chocolaty, rich and have I mentioned, chocolaty.  However, for our Easter cake we changed the icing to a chocolate orange one and I give both buttercreams in the recipe below.  I hope you enjoy it as much as our guests did!

• • 50g dark chocolate, melted and allowed to cool slightly
  • 250g butter, at room temperature
  • 250g light muscovado sugar
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 100g cocoa powder
  • 250g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 3 large eggs 
  • 250ml milk
  • 50g chocolate chip
    
    
    For the buttercream:
    
    
  • 140g butter, softened
  • 50g cocoa powder
  • 200g icing sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 5 Oreo cookies
    
    
  • Grease and line the bases of 2 x 20cm springform cake tins with greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) 350F / gas
    
    
  • Cream together the butter and sugar with ½ tsp salt until light and fluffy.
    
    
  • Sift together the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time and beat until well combined, then fold in half the dry ingredients followed by the melted chocolate. Fold in the rest, followed by enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency, and then the chocolate chips. Divide between the two tins and bake for about 25–30 minutes until firm in the centre.
    
    
  • Allow to cool completely on a rack, then make the buttercream. Beat the butter until fluffy, then add the cocoa, icing sugar and salt and, if necessary, a little milk to loosen the mixture. Put one of the cakes on a serving plate and spread a third of the icing on top. Place the second on top, then spread the rest of the icing over it
  • Blitz the biscuits to a fine crumb in a food processor and sprinkle them over the cake
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Alternative Chocolate Orange Fudge Icing
  
  
  • butter 200g, softened
  • icing sugar 200g
  • dark chocolate 200g, melted and cooled slightly
  • Grated zest of 1 orange
    
  
  
  Method
  
  
  
  Whizz the butter and icing sugar, add the orange zest and melted chocolate, whizz again, then sandwich and ice the cake.