Sunday, March 30, 2014

Orange and poppy seed cake with chocolate topping


A fluffy but dense sponge cake full of poppy seeds and orange flavor. A dripping chocolate sauce spooned over its top, and a generous sprinkling of candied chopped orange peels on top of the sauce. The ideal way to end a spring afternoon :).


The way to make this is pretty much on the easy side, so it will be a pretty relaxed baking session. Enjoy :)
Recipe adapted from here.

Last year: Red onion, garlic and olive Flammkuchen.
Two years ago: Cous cous and pomegranate spicy salad (vegan).
Three years ago: Caprese skewers (Italian)Pork, bell pepper, carrot and broccoli stir-fry (Chinese)Basic carrot cake bars (American) and White fish (pangasius) fillet in cream-wine sauce




Ingredients (for a 20 cm cake tin):

For the cake:
  • 200 g butter (plus extra for greasing the tin)
  • 200 g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 250 g plain flour
  • 1,5 teaspoons baking powder
  • juice and zest of two oranges
  • 50 g poppy seeds, toasted
For the sauce:
  • 50 g butter
  • 100 g dark chocolate
  • 100 ml double cream
To decorate: 

  • 100 g candied orange zest, cubed

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly butter the tin (preferably use a spring-form tin) and line it with baking paper. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.

Add the orange juice and zest and mix again. Mix the flour with the baking powder and gradually incorporate it in the wet ingredients. When all seems even, add the poppy seeds.

Mix again until even, then pour the batter into the prepared tin:

Bake it for 50 minutes - 1 hour or until a skewer inside comes out clean. Take it out and allow to cool. Don't worry if the rising made cracks in the top:

After 10 minutes or so, remove the cake from the tin and transfer it to a serving plate / cake stand etc. To make the sauce, melt the ingredients together over a bain-marie, stiring once in a while until all is even:

Spread the sauce over the top of the cake and sprinkle the cubed candied zest over it:

The cake is done. Slice and dig in! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment