Orange and chocolate cake

There are some combinations that are always a win. Most of them include fruits and of course chocolate. One of my favourite (not to mention the strawberry/chocolate one!) is the orange and chocolate, preferably dark chocolate (which tend to become my favourite those past few years). What do you think about this combination in this recipe? I know we, my guests and myself, loved it!

Ingredients for 6 to 8 portions:

The cake:

• 250 g of flour
• 175 g of sugar
• 225 g of soft butter
• 1/2 pack of baking powder
• 4 eggs
• 100 g of dark chocolate
• 1 orange and a half

The frosting:

• The juice of 1 orange and a half (so 3 oranges in total for the whole recipe)
• 75 g of icing sugar

Times:

• Preparation: 20 mins
• Cooking: 45 mins
• Rest: none

The cake:

1- Beat the butter and the eggs together until creamy. Add the eggs one by one and mix well between each egg.

2- Add the baking powder to the flour and incorporate them gently to the egg mixture.

3- Remove the zest from the orange and a half, squeeze the juice, and add them to the batter. At the point I use an electric mixer to make the batter as even as possible.

4- Preheat the oven at 170 Celcius degree. Grate the chocolate finely (I use a food processor, it takes a few seconds). Grease a 24 cm diameter cake tin (with a little bit of soft butter and spread a little bit of flour to make it non sticky (that is not necessary if you are using a silicone mould).

5- Pour one third of the batter into the tin, sprinkle half of the grated chocolate, then add another third of the batter, sprinkle the other half of the grated chocolate, and finish off with the last third of batter.

6- In the oven for 45 to 50 minutes, and let it cool down 5 to 10 minutes before removing the cake from the tin.

The frosting:

6- When the cake is baked and cooling off, mix the icing sugar with the juice of the orange and a half in a hot pan over medium heat. Let it boil for not more than a minute while stirring regularly. After a minute remove from heat and put aside.

7- When the cake is out of the tin, drizzle the juice still warm all over it

I love this cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a generous spoon of whipped cream… or both! 😛