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Chocolate Orange Cake January 22, 2012

Posted by aquillam in recipe.
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Chocolate Orange Cake

Start by grating and juicing 2 oranges, preferably juice oranges (the kind with thin skins and seeds.) When grating, be careful not to get the white pith. You should end up with about a quarter cup of juice and about 2 tablespoons of orange peel.

Both the cake and ganache filling must cool for several hours, so the best way to make this is to make the cake and ganache the day before.

Chocolate-Orange Cake

Use your favorite chocolate cake recipe. Something dark and slightly dense works best, but I’m personally rather fond of the  German Chocolate Cake recipe in my 1997 Joy of Cooking (which happens to be very similar to the recipe on the German Chocolate box.) Add about half of the fresh grated orange peel to the four when you make the cake, and 1 tsp orange flavoring to the liquid.

Make a 2 layer round cake. The filling and frosting will cover a 9 inch 2 layer cake

Orange-chocolate ganache

  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons triple-sec or 2 teaspoons orange flavoring
  • 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

Heat the cream and triple-sec or orange flavoring just until boiling.

Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate.

Cover with plastic wrap so a skin can’t form and let stand for 10 minutes. Then stir to ensure the chocolate is melted and mixed in. Re-cover and chill several hours until cold.

Orange Buttercream frosting

  • 1/2 c butter (at room temperature)
  • 4 c powdered sugar
  • Juice and peel from oranges
  • milk or cream
  • extra powdered sugar

Cream the butter on high with the orange peel. Add the powdered sugar 1/4 c at a time until well blended. If it gets too stiff, stop adding the powdered sugar.
Beat in the orange juice.
Add either more powdered sugar or some milk or cream to get the frosting to the right consistency. It should stand up on its own, but be soft enough to spread.

Assembly

Have the cake and frosting prepared. The frosting should be at room temperature or slightly warm to make it easy to spread.

Whip the ganache on medium speed until it is thickened and spreadable. Do not over-beat, it will start to break down.

Spread the ganache on the bottom layer, as thickly as it will support. You may have leftovers. If there is enough, you can use it as a crumb coat for the top of the cake.

Frost with the buttercream frosting.

Chill a few hours until the frosting is firm. This will help the cake cut nicely.

Just before serving, dust with coco powder.