Fudgy Chocolate Orange Gateau Recipes

FUDGY CHOCOLATE & ORANGE GATEAU

Steps:

• Making the sponges: Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. You'll need to make 3 rectangular chocolate sponges, a pair of round chocolate sponges, and 3 rectangular orange sponges to assemble this cake, so get everything organised first. Take a look at our Guide and the additional tips, in the Tip box below.
• For every rectangular sponge, you'll need to line the base of a 21 x 31cm tin (see Guide in the Tips below and Related guides box, right) neatly with baking parchment and grease the sides with a little flavourless oil.
• Start with the chocolate sponges. Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until melted. Whisk together the egg yolks, milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Stir the flour and cocoa into the melted butter to make a paste. Transfer this butter-flour mixture to a big mixing bowl and whisk in the egg mixture a little at a time - this takes elbow grease to get it smooth, but keep going!
• Put the egg whites in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until stiff. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is glossy and thick. Whisk a third of the meringue mixture into the chocolate mixture to loosen, then use a big metal spoon to gently fold the remaining meringue into the batter until just incorporated. Spread the batter evenly in the tin. Bake for 12 mins.
• Turn the cake out of the tin onto baking parchment very lightly dusted with icing sugar. Peel off the cake lining parchment and cover with a clean tea towel.
• Repeat steps 2 to 5 twice more. When the third rectangular sponge is baked, turn out as before but very loosely roll up the sponge like a Swiss roll, starting from one of the shortest sides, rolling up the tea towel inside.
• Make a final, fourth batch of the chocolate sponge recipe, but this time divide it between 2 x 20cm round, shallow sandwich tins. Bake for 10 mins, then turn out as instructed in step 5.
• Now make the orange sponges. Follow steps 3 to 6 again, but instead of milk, measure 75ml of the juice from the orange you've zested. If you don't have enough, make up the difference with milk. Whisk in the zest.
• Cool all the sponges.
• Making the frosting and icing: For the orange frosting, beat together the butter, icing sugar, orange zest and juice. Beat until just combined - the acidity of the orange may start to split the mixture if overbeaten. If it looks a little split though, don't worry - just stop mixing, it'll still taste lovely. Can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days, but will need bringing back to room temp to use.
• When you are about to start assembling, put all the chocolate icing ingredients in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Gently melt together, stirring occasionally, until smooth and shiny.
• Assembling the cake: Cut each rectangular sponge into 2 long strips 7cm wide - trimming the long edges off will give you a neater finish (see step A in the Guide). It's important to be really accurate, so use a ruler. Trim the short edges to neaten. When you prepare the rolled-up sponges, just gently unroll first - don't worry if they crack a bit.
• Spread a thin layer of orange frosting over every strip, right to the edges. Gently peel the strips away from their paper - they will have stuck a bit. Start with 1 chocolate and 1 orange strip that was rolled up to cool, and lay one on top of the other - but don't line up the ends. Sit the second sponge about an inch down from one of the ends of the bottom sponge (it doesn't matter which is chocolate and which is orange). Start to roll up from this end - the bottom sponge should roll up and over neatly on top of the second, so the middle of the roll is nice and tight (see step A in the Guide).
• Keep adding extra sponges and rolling up to make a giant Swiss roll but as you roll, the ends of each different-coloured layer won't finish together (and this difference increases as the roll gets bigger). So you'll need to add chocolate and orange sponges individually from now on, rather than sandwiching together first, then adding to the rolled cake. Where each strip ends, you'll stick on a matching sponge - so a chocolate strip always continues with another chocolate, and the same with orange (see steps C & D in the Guide). This is the fiddly bit, as you'll find you'll need to partly stick on 1 coloured strip, then snuggle in the other coloured strip partway through. (This sounds more complicated than it is. When you start to do it, this will all make sense.) If you have a spare pair of hands in the house, this is the time to use them.
• It's up to you whether you find it easier to work as a roll (see step E in the Guide), or to turn the roll on one of its flat ends to work with (see step F in the Guide). I started rolling, and just as it got towards the ends and was getting quite heavy and bulky, I flipped it to continue. Have the round sponges to hand as you near the end, to check whether you've reached a roll of 20cm diameter plus. As soon as you do, stop - you may have 1 strip of 1 colour left over.
• Sit the rolled cake on one of its flat ends if you haven't already. Spread a good layer of orange frosting over the top, then press on 1 of the round chocolate sponges (see step G in the Guide) - line it up to the middle of the roll, rather than one of the edges of the roll. This means you'll have to take a sharp knife and trim the roll all around, until it is perfectly flush with the round sponge top. Flip the cake upside down onto your serving plate. Spread some more orange frosting over the new top, and add the second round sponge.
• Gradually spoon on, and spread over, the chocolate icing with a big palette knife. If should still be runny enough to gently run down the sides, giving you a shiny finish (see step H in the Guide).

CHOCOLATE-ORANGE DECADENCE

Steps:

• For cake:
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Line pan bottoms with waxed paper. Using vegetable peeler, remove peel from oranges in strips. Coarsely chop peel in processor, stopping occasionally to scrap down sides of bowl. Add 1/3 cup sugar and blend until peel is minced. Add marmalade and puree. Using electric mixer, cream butter with pureed mixture and vanilla in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in remaining 1 cup sugar. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift dry ingredients into small bowl. Mix dry ingredients into batter alternately with orange juice.
• Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tops are golden brown and tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 38 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on racks 10 minutes. Run sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool. Peel off paper.
• For the chocolate ganache:
• Bring cream and butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan. Reduce heat to low. Add chopped chocolate and stir until melted. Mix in remaining ingredients. Pour ganache into large bowl. Freeze until very thick but still spreadable, stirring frequently, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
• For glaze:
• Melt marmalade in heavy small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat. Mix in Grand Marnier.
• Cut each cake into 2 layers. Place 1 layer on plate. Brush with 1/4 of glaze. Spread 1 cup ganache over. Top with second cake layer. Brush with 1/4 of glaze. Spread 3/4 cup ganache over. Top with 1 1/2 baskets berries (about 2 1/2 cups). Spread 1/2 cup ganache over third cake layer. Invert, chocolate side down, over berries. Brush with 1/4 of glaze. Spread 1 cup ganache over. Top with fourth cake layer. Brush with remaining glaze. Spread 3/4 cup ganache over top of cake. Spoon 1 cup ganache into pastry bag fitted with medium star top. Spread remaining ganache over sides of cake, drawing icing spatula up to create vertical lines. Pipe decorative border of ganache around top and bottom edges of cake. Freeze cake 20 minutes. Arrange remaining berries atop cake, covering completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover cake loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate.)
• Garnish cake with mint sprigs. Serve cake at room temperature.

FUDGY ORANGE-ZUCCHINI CAKE WITH ORANGE GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together and set aside. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla and milk to the butter mixture. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix until well blended. Fold in the zucchini, orange zest and nuts. Pour into a greased and floured bundt cake pan.Bake 50 to 60 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack.
• To make the glaze, in a bowl mix together the sugar, orange juice and vanilla. While the cake is still warm, drizzle with the glaze. Garnish with flowers or mint sprigs.