Dark chocolate & orange gateau

Made for the Macmillan Coffee Morning, this cake is a chocolate Victoria Sandwich cake that had been flavoured with grated orange zest.

Dark chocolate & orange cake

The layers are filled and thinly coated with an intense, but light, orange buttercream, with the cake surrounded by a chocolate drizzle wrap – one of my signature cake decorating flourishes!

I topped the cake with a few strips of orange peel that were simmered in light sugar syrup, while still retaining a little of its wonderful bitterness.

The cake recipe

The recipe for a Victoria Sandwich cake is here. I made a 7″ cake, using a 4-egg mixture. I replaced 50g of the flour with 50g cocoa powder and added the finely grated zest of 2 large oranges. The juice was used in the filling, along with the juice of a further 2 oranges.

Dark chocolate & orange cake

Orange buttercream

The buttercream I made here was very light but had a deep orange flavour. The orange juice and zest were simmered and reduced to intensify the flavour.

• 200g soft unsalted butter
• 250g icing sugar
• finely grated zest of 2 large oranges
• juice of 4 large oranges

(1) Put the orange juice and the zest in a small pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes until reduced by about half. Leave to cool.

(2) Whisk the butter with the icing sugar for 5-10 minutes until very light and mousse-like. Whisk in the cooled orange mixture, adding it slowly to prevent curdling. If it does curdle, whisk in about 50g cooled melted white chocolate and it will come back together.

Dark chocolate & orange cake

Author: Philip

Finalist on Britain’s Best Home Cook (BBC Television 2018). Published recipe writer with a love of growing fruit & veg, cooking, teaching and eating good food. View all posts by Philip