Chocolate Orange Drizzle Cake

choc orange loaf 2This recipe is really more of a loaf than a cake and is adapted from the Lemon Drizzle Cake which I wrote about last year. I first made this cake over Christmas, I did all the photography and recipe writing but never actually got around to publishing it, so when I made it again on Saturday to take to a Pamper Party I thought I would write it up. I also made the lemon version on Saturday and if you look at the two together (below) you may notice the chocolate one is a lot lower – I might have got distracted and forgotten to add the baking powder. Oops. Still the photo above complete with oven dried orange slices shows how it was meant to look. 20140204-131708.jpg Both cakes went down very well at the party and my friend’s husband stated that this cake tasted just like a Jaffa Cake, (in a good way) the candied zest in the syrup glaze looks beautiful and jewel like, adding a little extra brightness to an already yummy cake. Ingredients: For the cake: 320g Castor Sugar 3 Large eggs (beaten) zest of 2 Oranges 300g Plain flour 50g good quality Cocoa powder 1tsp Salt 1 and a half tsp Baking powder 250ml Whole Milk 1tsp Orange extract 200g Unsalted butter (melted) For the syrup: 50g Castor sugar 100ml water Zest of 1 orange Juice of 1 and a half oranges Method for the cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 170c
  • Using a freestanding mixer beat the eggs and sugar until smooth the add in the orange zest.
  • In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.
  • Slowly add half the flour to the egg mix while mixing on a slow speed.
  • 20140204-134645.jpgAdd the orange essence to the milk and add to the egg mix then continue to add the remaining flour mixture until you have a smooth batter.
  • Melt the butter in a microwavable bowl using 15 second bursts and stirring to dissolve any remaining lumps.
  • Add the melted butter to the batter and pour into a buttered and lined loaf tin.
    • To line the tin I cut grease-proof paper so that it is the width of the longest side of the tin, Making sure there is an excess on either end. Once placed in the tin this means I can use the excess paper to easily lift the cake from the tin without turning it upside down.
  • Bake at 170c for 1hr 10 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. After 45 minutes begin to make the orange syrup.

Method for the syrup:

  • 20140204-134620.jpgPlace the sugar, orange zest, water and orange juice in a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
  • Reduce the syrup until it coats the back of a spoon then remove from the heat. (I find this is when the mixture has reduced by about half).
  • When the cake is removed from the oven pour over the syrup BEFORE removing from the tin. (A good tip is to do this over a sink in case of spillage.
  • Leave the syrup to soak in for a few minutes before lifting the cake from the tin using the grease proof paper.
  • Place on a wire rack to cool. I leave the grease proof paper under the cake to stop and excess syrup dripping onto my work surface.

 

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7 comments

  1. Emily @amummytoo says:

    Ooooh great, you blogged it and it looks so darn good. Thank you for linking up to #recipeoftheweek. It’s always appreciated 🙂 I’ve Pinned and Tweeted this post and there’s a new linky just gone live with this post making up part of the showcase 😀 I hope you join in again!

  2. sarahhillwheeler says:

    This looks lovely. I am a total chocolate fanatic, and I love the two photographs…interesting variation on the lemon drizzle and personally think chocolate goes better with orange. Also intrigued by the orange slices…had been pondering on drying fruit when I saw a gizmo for it in Lakeland. Yours look lovely.

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