Nigella Lawson Chocolate Orange Cake Recipe Recipe Cards

NIGELLA LAWSON FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKE

Steps:

• Put the whole orange or oranges in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 2 hours or until soft.
• Drain, and when cool, cut the oranges in half and remove any big pips.
• Then pulp everything - pith, peel and all - in a food processor.
• Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C Butter and line a 20cm springform tin.
• Add the eggs, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, almonds, sugar and cocoa to the orange in the food processor. Run the motor until you have a cohesive cake mixture, but slightly knobbly with the flecks of puréed orange.
• Pour and scrape into the cake tin and bake for an hour, by which time a cake tester should come out pretty well clean. Check after 45 minutes because you may have to cover with foil to prevent the cake burning before it is cooked through, or indeed it may need a little less than an hour; it all depends on your oven.
• Leave the cake to get cool in the tin, on a cooling rack. When the cake is cold you can take it out of the tin. Decorate with strips of orange peel or coarsely grated zest if you so wish, but it is darkly beautiful in its plain, unadorned state.

NIGELLA LAWSON CAKE AND FROSTING

Steps:

• Take everything out of the refrigerator so that all ingredients can come room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Put all the cake ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. If you want to go the long way around, just mix the flour, sugar and leavening agents in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter until you have a combined and creamy mixture. Now whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture.
• Divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tins and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, which should be about 35 minutes, but it is wise to start checking at 25 minutes. Also, it might make sense to switch the 2 cakes around in the oven halfway through cooking time. Remove the cakes, in their tins, to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out of their tins. Don't worry about any cracks as they will easily be covered by the frosting later.
• To make this icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a good-sized bowl either in the microwave or suspended over a pan of simmering water. Go slowly either way: you don't want any burning or seizing.
• While the chocolate and butter is cooling a little, sieve the confectioners' sugar into another bowl. Or, easier still, put the icing sugar into the food processor and blitz to remove lumps.
• Add the corn syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture, followed by the sour cream and vanilla and then when all this is combined whisk in the sieved confectioners' sugar. Or just pour this mixture down the funnel of the food processor onto the powdered sugar, with the motor running.
• You may need to add a little boiling water, say a teaspoon or so, or indeed some more confectioners' sugar, depending on whether you need the frosting to be thiner or thicker. It should be liquid enough to coat easily, but thick enough not to drip off.
• Choose your cake stand or plate and cut 4 strips of baking parchment to form a square and sit 1 of the cakes, uppermost (i.e. slightly domed) side down.
• Spoon about 1/3 of the frosting onto the center of the cake-half and spread with a knife or spatula until you cover the top of it evenly. Sit the other cake on top, normal way up, pressing gently to sandwich the 2 together.
• Spoon another 1/3 of the frosting onto the top of the cake and spread it in a swirly, textured way (though you can go for a smooth finish if you prefer, and have the patience). Spread the sides of the cake with icing and leave a few minutes until set, then carefully pull away the paper strips.

NIGELLA LAWSON PANTRY-SHELF CHOCOLATE-ORANGE CAKE

Steps:

• Oven@ 350.
• Melt the butter in a saucepan and then add the chocolate and stir until melted.
• Take off of the heat.
• Add the marmalade, sugar, and the eggs and combine.
• Gradually beat in the flour.
• Pour into a greased 8-inch springform pan.
• Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
• Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

NIGELLA LAWSON CLEMENTINE CAKE

Steps:

• Place whole, unpeeled clementines into a pot and cover with cold water.
• Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and let cook 2 hours (she doesn't say to add any additional water in her recipe, but I imagine you may need to add some if too much simmers away).
• Drain, let cool, then cut each Clementine in half, remove seeds, and place in food processor- skins and all.
• Chop the Clementines in the processor finely.
• In a bowl, beat the eggs.
• Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder to the eggs, mixing well.
• Add the chopped Clementines by hand and mix to combine.
• Pour batter into a greased and parchment lined 8-inch springform pan.
• Bake in a preheated 375 F oven for 40 minutes, then cover loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning and CONTINUE cooking about another 10 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pan on a wire rack overnight.
• VARIATION: You can substitute an equal weight of regular oranges or lemons for the Clementines; increase the sugar to 1 1/4 cups if you do so.
• OPTIONAL GLAZE: If you wish, you may make a glaze from a little powdered sugar mixed with a bit of lemon juice and water and drizzle it over the top (see my recipe for Cinnamon Bun Icing for a good glaze).