orange chocolate chunk cake.

The one plus side of cooking as much as I do, is that in situations like this (i.e. THE BLIZZARD OF 2015), you aren’t going to find me waiting on a 3 block long line to enter into Whole Food or Trader Joe’s to buy pita chips, hummus, and bananas (this is the kind of food I think people who don’t cook a lot survive on).  Instead I am digging into my (overly stocked) pantry and (stuffed to the brim) freezer to cook, bake, and roast us an epic meal.   We are all set Sir Juno so bring on your 24 inches of snow, I have books and magazines and double chocolate orange cake to survive on.  

Yes!  DOUBLE Chocolate orange cake.  I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to talk about this cake because this cake is one of my most absolute favorites.  I know some people scoff at the combination of chocolate and fruit but to me, there is no better combination.  I like the tartness and the acidity that fruit brings to chocolate.  This is why I always toss dried cherries into my brownies and go absolutely insane for passion fruit truffles (Tyler if you are reading this a box of 12 for Valentine’s Day from Xocolatti would be swell, THANKS).  But this cake, this cake is perfect for blizzards and winter and general hibernation time.  It’s dense and buttery and positively moist from the orange syrup.  But the real kicker is the chocolate ganache which makes the cake the perfect indulgence for a snowy winter day. 

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

Recipe from Ina Garten

Recipe can EASILY be halved and baked in a loaf pan (or if you don’t have a bundt pan you can bake it in 2 loaf pans).  Oh and Ina loves extra-large eggs, but trust me, large works fine.   

For the Cake

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1/4 cup grated orange zest (4 large oranges)

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups good semisweet chocolate chunks

For the Syrup

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

For the Ganache

8 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the orange zest.

Sift together 3 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately in thirds to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the flour. Toss the chocolate chunks with 2 tablespoons flour and add to the batter. Pour into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the syrup. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the sugar with the orange juice until the sugar dissolves. Remove the cake from the pan, set it on a rack over a tray, and spoon the orange syrup over the cake. Allow the cake to cool completely.

For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of the cake.

deep chocolate cake with orange icing.

I try and refrain from saying things like "this is the best" or "this is my most favorite" on this blog mostly because those superlatives are always changing.  I spend so much of my time reading food blogs, cookbooks, and magazines and then trying new recipes that very few things remain consistent (except for my Mom's cooking, that is always the best).  My tastes and opinions are ever evolving. (Which I think is the whole point of cooking now isn't it?)

With that being said, this cake may qualify as the best chocolate cake I have ever made.  (No really, it is.)  

Minutes after icing it, I ate a healthy slice of it.  I wasn't expecting to be blown away, it's a chocolate cake after all, I've eaten hundreds of slices of chocolate cake, but it was extraordinary.  Extraordinary!  The cake itself was rich with a deep and intense chocolate flavor.  It was moist and perfectly dense which is exactly how I like my chocolate cake.  The icing is everything I love in icing.  Creamy yet not cloyingly sweet with a subtle tang (sour cream is so necessary in desserts).  The orange comes through yet doesn't overpower (what's better then orange and chocolate?) and it's pink! 

Make this.  Now.  

Deep Chocolate Cake with Orange Icing

Recipe adapted from Food52

I changed around the frosting a little so it uses only items most people would have on hand (like orange juice instead of orange extract and orange liquor).  I also swapped out blood oranges for regular oranges since I clearly still had Valentine’s Day on the brain.  I can’t deny my love for pink. 

Chocolate Cake

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ teaspoons baking soda

¾ teaspoons kosher salt

½ cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup strong coffee (or use instant espresso)

½ cup unsalted butter

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup whole milk

Heat the oven to 350°F, first positioning a rack in the center of the oven. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Combine the brown sugar, coffee, butter and chocolate in a medium heavy saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally until the butter and chocolate are almost completely melted. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the vanilla and set aside to cool.

When the chocolate mixture is about at room temperature, add the eggs and using a wooden spoon, stir well to combine. Add the dry ingredients and the milk in stages, alternating between the two and stirring well between each addition. (The batter should be fairly smooth, but it’s okay if you end up with some small lumps.)

Pour the batter into a greased pan measuring roughly 8 1/2” x 11” and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the center of the cake springs back when you press it lightly with your finger and a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely on a rack and then ice (recipe below). 

Orange Icing

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1 ½ tablespoon orange zest

2 -3 teaspoons orange juice or concentrated orange syrup (by cooking down the orange juice)

1 tablespoon mascarpone or sour cream

1 – 2 tablespoon milk

Using a wooden spoon, combine the butter and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl. Stir in in the zest, orange juice/orange syrup and mascarpone/sour cream, and then switch to a whisk to attack any lumps. Gradually whisk in the milk, adding just enough to make the icing spreadable.

Spread a thin layer of icing over the top of the cake and refrigerate briefly so that the icing firms up a little. Cut the cake into squares to serve.

upside-down blood orange cake.

I've spent much of the last week deep in thought.  Thoughts about life and my career and relationships and traveling and where I see myself in 5 years and 10 years and 20 years.  It's funny how when I think back to 21 I thought when I reached 27 on the cusp of 28 that I would have it all figured out.  That I would know where I was going and exactly when I was going to reach the next step and here I am now, slowly realizing that I am completely unsure of anything and I am slowly accepting that this is probably how the rest of my life will go - always unsure of the next step but hoping I figure it out.  Maybe we spend our whole lives trying to get to a point where we have it figured it out and most likely we spend our whole life failing to get there but it we're lucky the trip will be worth it.

I've come to realize the only things I am sure of is that cooking (and my super awesome dishwasher and #1 taste tester) make me happy.  I figure if I keep trying new recipes and exploring new restaurants and constantly pushing myself, that that is the best I can do.  And with that mindset, that is how I found myself on a bitterly cold Friday evening after terribly long and exhausting day at work, coming home to make an upside-down blood orange cake.  It had been on my mind for over a week - ever since it caught my eye when I was sneakily pursuing the dinning section of the NYTimes at work.  This is the cake dreams are made of (or maybe just my dreams). It's a cake with a personality - some bites sweet, some just a touch tart. It's a cake that's beautiful with it's shades of pink and orange and yellow (blood oranges are gorgeous) .  It's a cake that makes you think which is always a good thing in my book.  

Upside-Down Blood Orange Cake

Recipe via the NYTimes

270 grams unsalted butter (2 sticks + 3 tablespoons) at room temperature

130 grams light brown sugar (about 2/3 cup)

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 medium sized blood oranges

122 grams fine cornmeal (about 1 cup)

65 grams all-purpose flour (about ½ cup)

8 grams baking powder (about 1 ½ teaspoons)

2 grams fine sea salt (about ½ teaspoon)

200 grams granulated sugar (about 1 cup)

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1/3 cup sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9-inch round cake pan. 

In a small sauce pan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons (45 grams) butter.  Add the brown sugar and lemon juice; stir until sugar melts, about 3 minutes.  Scrape mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. 

Grate ½ teaspoon zest from one of the oranges, the slice off the tops and bottoms of both oranges.  Place oranges on a clean, flat service, and slice away the rind and pith, top to bottom, following the curve of the fruit.  Slice each orange crosswise into ¼ inch thick wheels; discard any seeds.  Arrange orange wheels on top of brown sugar mixture in a single, tight layer. 

In a large bowl, whisk together orange zest, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt.  In a separate bowl, cream together the remaining 2 sticks (225 grams) butter with granulated sugar.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in sour cream and vanilla.  Fold in the dry mixture by hand. 

Scrape batter into pan over oranges.  Transfer to oven and bake until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, 40 – 50 minutes.  Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then run a knife along pan’s edges to loose it; invert onto a platter and cool completely before serving.