Chocolate Orange Cake from the Clandestine Cake Club

Chocolate Orange Cake from the Clandestine Cake Club

One of my colleagues, Irina, had her last day at work recently. I wanted to thank Irina and wish her luck, so I made her a cake of her own. I chose a chocolate orange cake, which is a wonderful flavour combination. The recipe for this cake is the chocolate orange disaster cake by Rachel Baxter, from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook by Lynn Hill.

The smell of this cake while baking and cooling is something else - you can really smell the orange. As it is a sponge-like cake, it isn't a long keeper, and I recommend eating it the day you make it.

To make this cake, you will need:

• 100g sugar
• 100g self raising flour
• 100g butter
• 25g cocoa powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• grated zest of an orange

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line two 18cm round cake tins.

Beat the sugar and butter together in a stand mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition, adding a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent curdling.

Sift all of the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking powder) together and fold into the batter, then mix in the orange zest. If the batter is too thick (ie it is not dropping consistency), loosen it with some milk.

Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through. (Note there is not much batter so don't use larger cake tins.) Remove the cakes from the oven and allow them to cool in the tins for around 5 minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing you will need:

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar

75g dark chocolate, melted (I used milk chocolate and it was fine)

1 teaspoon orange liqueur (I used OJ)

Beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth, then mix in the melted chocolate and liqueur.

Assemble the cake by placing one cake on a cake board, spread half the frosting on it, top with the remaining cake, then spread the rest of the frosting on top. Decorate as you please. I used sugar flowers (they taste awful but look pretty), writing icing and edible glitter in bronze:

I think it looked pretty! Irina cut me a very generous slice to try:

It was deemed good.