Chocolate orange cake

As I have mentioned before, I have a particular like for chocolate orange as a flavour.  So when planning cakes to make for a gathering of my friends for my birthday, a chocolate orange cake was a natural choice.

Not being able to find a recipe, I decided to adapt recipes I did have for chocolate sponge and for chocolate frosting.

The chocolate sponge is based on Nigel Slater's recipe for a chocolate coffee cake - instead of 3tbsp of espresso coffee I added 3tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice and some orange zest to the cake mix.  The recipe makes a cake with a lovely texture, and this amount of orange worked well to give the chocolate sponge a yummy flavour, without the orange taking over.

For Christmas Mum had given me some Orange Blossom water, and this seemed a perfect opportunity to try it out.  I used it to flavour the chocolate frosting; it took a bit of trial and error (lots of tasting required!) to get the balance right - a couple of tablespoons seemed to do the trick.

Then all that was needed was some orange zest to brighten up the top of the cake.

This is a grown-up chocolate cake, in that it is not a sweet chocolate cake.  I love chocolate orange as a flavour, and I was a bit worried that this cake (which I basically made up based on nothing more than the fact that I really like chocolate orange) wouldn't live up to my expectations; I needn't have worried.  It was delicious and went down very well with my friends.  Definitely one to make again.