Chocolate and Orange Cake

 This weekend at the at Food Blogger Indaba 2011, I learnt the importance of giving my readers what they want, without sacrificing my own need to express my own personality and passions. I think that chocolate is a safe bet on both accounts.

I also learnt to play with flavours and ensure that while they must be creative, they still need to work well together. I decided to add a new flavour to my classic Martha's Chocolate Cake. I wasn't too adventurous, adding orange with chocolate, but I will say that the result was a huge success. Chocolate and Orange work so well together, it's a marriage made in heaven -Homemade Heaven!

Chocolate and Orange Cake

Chocolate and Orange Cake

4 eggs separated
4 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1¼ Cup of Sugar
1 cup of Milk
200ml of Soft Butter
1¾ cups of Flour
2 Tablespoons Coco powder (do yourself a favour and buy the expensive one) I only use Nomu.
1 Tablespoon of corn flour (cornstarch)
Finely Grated zest of 2 un-waxed Oranges - about 2 packed teaspoons.

Pre Heat your oven to 180ºC
Separate 4 large eggs.
Whisk the whites until they come to soft peaks.
Keep the whisk running and . . . .
Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder,
Add 1¼ cup of sugar,
Add the egg yolks and whisk for 1 more minute.
Stop the whisk
Put 1 cup of milk and 200ml of soft butter in the microwave for 1 minute.
Sift together 1¾ cups of flour,
2 dessert spoons coco powder
1 dessert spoon of corn flour (cornstarch)
3 teaspoons baking powder

Alternatively add the milk mixture and the flour mixture to the egg and sugar mixture,
stirring well after each addition.
Stir in the Orange Zest.
Pour the mixture into 2 prepared cake tins and bake for 35 minutes at 180°C.
Once it has cooled you can sandwich it together and frost with your favourite topping.

I adapted this wonderful "cheat" filling recipe from my good friend Nina at My Easy Cooking.

Filling
1 Packet chocolate instant pudding
250ml Cream
 50g Chopped 70% dark Chocolate

Mix the above together and fill and frost the cake.
Decorate the top with the chopped chocolate.

This is a very moist cake, and when you use the Dutch process cocoa it comes out very dark and chocolaty.

Banana Cake with Lime Frosting

Bananas in pyjamas
Are coming down the stairs
Bananas in pyjamas
Are coming down in pairs
Bananas in pyjamas
Are chasing teddy bears
'Cause on Tuesdays
They all try to
Catch them unawares

Do you remember this song? I used to sing it with my niece when she was little. This same niece got married this weekend, oh how time flies when you getting old!

I don't know how many of you experience this, but bananas in our house seem to turn from perfectly ripe, to beautifully sweet but bruised and black when you turn your back. I often get stuck with the odd one or two bananas that no one will eat, but are perfect for smoothies and baking.

I often make banana bread, which is always well received, but yesterday I decided to try something a little different - banana cake with lime icing. What a wonderful find, it is very moist and the lime icing really is "the icing on the cake"!
It is very easy to make and perfect for a quick cake using those last over ripe bananas - especially when they are really well past their eating prime.

Banana Cake with Lime Icing
 You can double this recipe and make a layer cake with a lime butter frosting.

125g Butter (Soft)
125g Castor Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Bananas Mashed (Medium)
2.5ml Vanilla Seeds (or 5ml Vanilla Essence)
5ml Orange Blossom Water (optional)
2.5ml Bi-carbonate of Soda
30ml Milk
500ml Self Raising Flour

Pre-heat the oven to 180C
Grease a 20cm x 10cm deep round cake tin.

Cream the butter and the sugar together.
Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
Add the bananas, the vanilla and the orange blossom water.
Dissolve the bi-carbonate in the milk.
Add the bi-carbonate to the mixture.
Sift in the flour and fold in to combine.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cake for 5 minutes in the tin and then remove and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Lemon Icing
150ml Icing Sugar
Juice of one Lime

Sift the icing sugar, add the lime juice and stir until smooth.
Pour over the cake, once the cake is cooled and allow to dry.
Serve

Chocolate Heaven

I have two faults, actually I have more than two ( I hope you're surprised), but since this is a food blog and not a confessional box, I just stick to the two relevant ones. Both these faults stem from the same under lying problem, my love for food. 

The first fault is I spend far too many hours reading food magazines, food blogs and watching cooking shows. This means I have copied, pasted, printed, bookmarked, saved and torn out  enough recipes to put me in the "obsessive complusive" catagory.

The second fault is purchasing cooking and baking equipment, some of which are seldom used and there are a few which are still in the packaging, who knows how long after they were purchased.

But, I don't forget the things I buy, I know exactly where they are - I just haven't had the right recipe (see fault one) to use them. When I came across this recipe from Nina, at My Easy Cooking, I knew I would be able to use the huge baking tin I bought about 8 months ago, which was still in it's original packaging.

When I read Nina discription "This chocolate cake recipe is unconventional, dead-easy to make, egg free and you use only one bowl for mixing and baking" and "...it makes a huge cake", I was set. I went straight to copy, paste and print!

I did make one change, I left out the 1/2 tsp fine cloves and 1 tsp fine cinnamon and dissolved 6 heaped spoons of instant coffee into the boiling water. Please click here for the recipe and instuctions.

“One who looks for a friend without faults will have none.”