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Dark Chocolate and Orange Layer Cake

Course Dessert
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

Orange Cake

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 ½ tsp coriander
  • ½ olive oil
  • 2 tbs orange zest
  • ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 ½ cups orange marmalade

Candied Orange Slices

  • 1 orange sliced very thin
  • Large bowl of ice water
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

  • 3 sticks of softened salted butter
  • 2/3 cup dark chocolate unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • Water

Instructions

For the Cake

  1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 8 round cake pans with parchment and spray with no-stick spray.
  2. Whip the eggs and sugar together until thick ribbons form. Set aside.
  3. In a second bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and coriander.
  4. Mix the orange juice, orange zest, and olive oil together and then add to the egg mixture. Beat until combined. Working in small batches, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Divide the batter between the two cake pans.
  5. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the toothpick in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes then turn out the layers on to wire racks and cool completely before building the cake.

Candied Orange Slices

  1. Slice the whole orange into very thin rounds. Bring 1 ¼ cup of water to a boil in a large skillet. Boil the orange rounds for 1 minute remove from water and put in the bowl of ice water.
  2. Add 1 cup of sugar to the boiling water, stir until dissolved. Turn down the heat and add the orange rounds to the pan. Let water evaporate occasionally flipping the rounds over until the skins are semitransparent. About 30 minutes.
  3. Remove rounds from pan place on baking rack to dry, at least a few hours or overnight. Reserve the orange simple syrup for other uses.

Buttercream Frosting

  1. Put the softened butter in a large bowl add in cocoa powder, vanilla, salt and one cup of sugar. Mix on high until fluffy. Keep adding sugar one cup at a time along with a tablespoon of water to the frosting to help the sugar to incorporate. Keep whipping the frosting for a light as airy consistency.

Build the Cake

  1. Place bottom round on cake pan. Pipe a small ring of frosting around the outside edge of the top of the first layer. Top the layer with the orange marmalade, filling in the frosting ring.
  2. Place second layer on top. Frost the cake as you like and garnish with the candied orange rounds.

Recipe Notes

Using water in place of milk and salted butter in the buttercream frosting makes the frosting less perishable, so no need to rush the cake into the fridge. Cold frosting and cake have less flavor so unless you are have leftovers that you want to keep around for a long time, just cover the cake and leave it on the counter.