Chocolate Orange Layer Cake
I adore the Christmas season and the build up that begins months in advance. I’ve been daydreaming of some festive bakes to bring you and I thought why not start with this gorgeous Chocolate Orange Layer Cake?
Although I’ve always been a fan of baking, layer cakes seemed to be the one thing that I could never quite get right. Frustrating! So I will admit that I had a couple of lessons from a professional and absolutely awesome local cake maker who I’m also lucky to call my friend. Having someone there to break the process down into easy to manage steps was a game changer and I’ve been hooked on them ever since.
It helped so much I’m going to be making some tutorial videos for you to help you along the way and simplify the process. All it takes is a little confidence, a few tools and a little practice.
Having experimented with a lot of types of icing, my favourites are ganache and American buttercream. It is by far the easiest to work with I’ve found and the flavour combinations you can achieve are amazing!
This chocolate orange layer cake was inspired by the iconic Terry’s Chocolate Orange. The flavour just reminds me of Christmas. So it seemed only right that the cake should have them as decorations on top!
The best way to not get overwhelmed when baking a layer cake is to break things down into segments. Maybe one evening you can bake the sponges, let them cool overnight and then save the icing and decorating for the next day? This is the way I handle these beauties.
Chocolate Orange Layer Cake
Author Ella Nurse | Date 28/11/2019Servings: 12
Equipment:
Four 6 inch loose bottomed cake tins
One 6" cake card
One 8" cake card
Cake scraper
Offset and straight spatula or palette knife
Ingredients:
Cake Layers
375 g butter
375 g caster sugar
6 large eggs
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp orange juice (1 orange appx.)
zest one orange
375 g self raising flour
Buttercream
225 g butter
750 g icing sugar sifted
4 tbsp double cream
4 tbsp orange juice (1 orange appx.)
Chocolate Drip
300 g double cream
600 g dark chocolate chips
Instructions:
The Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan
Grease and line the 6" cake pans
Using a stand mixer and paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, usually about 3 minutes
Add the eggs, juice, vanilla extract and zest to the mixer and combine
Add the flour a cup at a time and gently mix using a low speed. Try not to over mix at this stage to avoid a dense cake texture
Evenly distribute the cake mix between the four cake pans – there will be around 350g in each
Place the cake pans into the preheated oven for around 30-35 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean
Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes
Remove the cakes from the pans and place onto a rack to cool completely
The Buttercream
Place the butter into the bowl of the stand mixer and use the paddle attachment to beat for a few minutes on a fairly high speed until it has lightened in colour and texture
Slowly add the icing sugar, orange juice and double cream a little at a time and mix until combined
Beat the buttercream on a high speed for about 5 minutes or until it is silky in texture
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and beat out any air bubbles by hand using a spatula
The Ganache
Gently heat the double cream either in the microwave in short bursts or on the hob over a low heat
Place the dark chocolate chips into a heat proof bowl
Once hot, pour over the dark chocolate chips and stir until the chocolate has melted completely
Cake Assembly
Once the cake layers have cooled you can begin assembling
Place one of the layers bottom down on a 6" cake card
Add a layer of buttercream and place a second cake layer on top
Repeat the step above for the third layer
Place the final layer top down on the buttercream
Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of buttercream using a long pallete knife. This will lock in the crumbs. Scrape off any excess using a cake scraper
Place the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes to help the buttercream crumb coat to harden
Remove from the freezer after this time and frost the cake in a final layer of buttercream using a scraper to keep the sides straight and neat
Drip the melted chocolate ganache over the top of the final layer of buttercream, allowing a little to fall over the sides
Pipe swirls around the top of the cake and place little chocolate orange segments into each piped swirl to decorate
NOTES
You may find an acrylic disc useful for placing over the top of the cake when applying the final layer of buttercream. This will help keep you sides straight when using the scraper.To remove the acrylic disc, place the cake in the freezer again for another 10 minutes then use a knife to gently slide under the disc to cut the buttercream away.
I used a Wilton 1M piping tip for the decorative buttercream swirls.
To help when moving the cake, place an 8″ cake card under the 6″ card to avoid disturbing the buttercream.
A cake turntable will help immensely when frosting the cake layers.
