Looking for a mouth-watering chocolate orange cake? This super simple recipe tastes delicious with lashings of fresh cream.
Chocolate orange cake is the combination of all our favourite flavours in the world – think Terry’s Chocolate Orange but in sponge format! Or a Jaffa Cake cake….We love the zesty freshness of the orange against the richness of the chocolate – they make the perfect combination.
This dense, delicious cake is easy and quick enough to make with the kids at the weekend. Just make sure you get first dibs on licking the chocolate bowl though!
This easy chocolate orange cake takes around 40 mins to prepare and bake plus cooling time and is well worth the wait. As well as a soft, moist chocolate orange infused sponge, this recipe shows you how to make a milk and dark chocolate ganache to gloss over your cake. You’re certainly going to want to show off your creation to family and friends.
If you’re looking for a classic chocolate cake recipe, try our exceedingly popular Mary Berry’s chocolate cake recipe.
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 150g caster sugar
- 190g plain flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1 rounded tsp baking powder
- 100ml mild, light olive oil
- Grated zest of 2 oranges
- Juice of 1 orange
- For the icing:
- 75g softened butter
- 175g icing sugar, sifted
- 100g plain chocolate, melted
- 25g plain chocolate, chopped
- Orange zest to decorate (if desired)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Fan 160ºF/350ºF/gas mark 4. Line a 20cm (8-inch) round cake tin with lightly oiled baking parchment paper.
Place the eggs and sugar in a large bowl, over a pan of simmering water. Use an electric whisk to whisk the eggs until creamy and thick, enough to leave a trail when the whisk heads are lifted from the mixture.
Sift over the flour, cocoa and baking powder and gently fold in. When the flour is almost mixed in, add the olive oil, orange zest and juice and gently fold in.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20-25 mins or until the cake is risen and spongy – the sponge should bounce back when lightly touched in the centre. Cool in the tin for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
For the icing, cream the butter and icing sugar together with an electric whisk until fluffy. Add the chocolate and whisk again until smooth.
Spread the icing over the top of the cold cake, then decorate with the chopped chocolate. Serve in wedges decorated with orange zest if desired.
Top tip for making Chocolate orange cake
Not sure how to lin your cake tin? Our How to line a round cake tin video is sure to help you! It's so simple once you know how. Greaseproof paper at the ready!
Chocolate orange cake decoration ideas
If you’re wondering how to decorate your chocolate orange cake how about trying one of our easy cake decorating ideas? Or we’d recommend grating some orange zest over the ganache covered sponge, lightly dusting with icing sugar once the ganache has set and keeping it simple.
If you’re a big fan of Terry’s Chocolate Orange why not adorn with segments of chocolate orange - delicious!
How to make a chocolate orange ganache
This chocolate orange cake recipe shows you how to make a delicious, shiny chocolate ganache to cover the cake. Why not swap the plain chocolate for melted Terry’s Chocolate Orange instead for a real intense flavoured ganache.
