Chocolate Orange Cake

Chocolate Orange Cake

I think this is the right amount for a 2 layer 9 inch cake.  I really struggled with the original recipe, which called for you to mix the butter into the flour and stir the hot melted chocolate into the cold milk and eggs.  The chocolate didn't mix in well, and then the lumpy butter flour mixture didn't mix well with the liquids.  I ended up with a dirty food processor, a dirty immersion blender, a mess all over the counter, and lumpy cake batter.  So I've changed the method here.

For the cake:
240 g/8 oz. flour
280g/10 oz. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
80 g/3 oz butter
100 g/4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 eggs
250 ml/8 oz. milk

For the syrup
1/4 c. frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 c. orange juice (from the 2 oranges zested for the buttercream)
2 tsp. orange liqueur (like grand marnier or triple sec, optional)
1/4 c. sugar

For the white chocolate and orange buttercream
250 g/9 oz butter, softened
500 g/18 oz. powdered sugar
4-6 Tbs milk
100 g/2 1/2 oz. white chocolate, melted (Lindt is good)
zest of 2 oranges

For the filling:
1 batch of orange chocolate pastry cream, well-chilled

For the chocolate curls:
1 cup chopped semi or bittersweet chocolate

Preheat the oven to 325.  Line two 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper.  Spray bottom and sides with baking spray.  Wrap in damp cake pan insulating strips or fold damp dishtowels and pin them around the sides on the pan (not the top or bottom). This helps the layers bake even and flat because the edges don't bake before the middle.  Another pointer is to make sure your oven racks are level, that the oven itself is level, and that the racks don't sag in the middle (if they do, you can try to correct it by bending them slightly in the other direction if you do it before you turn on the oven).

Sift together the flour, sugar, and baking powder.

Melt the chocolate together with the butter, in a double boiler or in 20 second increments in the microwave, stirring between intervals.  Put in large mixing bowl.

Whisk the egg and milk together in a medium bowl or something with a spout.

Alternately stir the liquid and flour mixtures into the chocolate mixture, starting with the 1/3 of the liquid, then 1/2 the flour, mixing until just combined between each one, and ending with the last 1/3 of the liquid.

Divide the batter between the pans and bake until risen and golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about  25-30 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes.

Mix the syrup ingredients.  Pour over the warm cakes and set aside to cool completely.

For the buttercream, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Carefully stir in the powdered sugar and continue to beat for 5 minutes.  Beat in the milk, melted chocolate, and orange zest.

It's easiest to frost the cake if it is frozen.  I'd recommend that on the first day you bake the cake, baste it with the syrup, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and freeze the layers.  Make the pastry cream and chill it overnight.  The second day you can make the buttercream, pull the layers out of the freezer, spread the pastry cream between the layers and assemble and frost the cake.  At that point you can serve it (give it a couple hours to finish thawing), or carefully place in a cake box, freeze it solid, then wrap tightly in plastic or layers of foil without tipping it, and then place upright in freezer for up to a month.  (I was careful to keep savory things out of the freezer that I was storing the cakes in to be sure that I wouldn't get weird freezer flavors in the cakes.  You wouldn't need to worry about this if you're not freezing it for long).

For the chocolate curls, melt the chocolate (in microwave in short increments, stirring between, or in double boiler).  Spread in a thin layer on the back of a cookie sheet. Let the chocolate cool, then chill in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.  Pull it out and drag an orange zesting tool through the chocolate to make lovely curls.  If it all sticks together, the chocolate is too warm and needs to chill more.  If the tool just scratches without cutting into the chocolate, the chocolate is too cold and needs to sit out for a minute before you try again.  It took me a long time to get the temperature right.  It was a hot day and the chocolate kept getting too soft, so I'd have to chill, pull a couple of strips, then chill again until I got a good number of curls.  Then you can scrape up the leftover chocolate and use it to make hot chocolate or something else.