Chocolate and orange cake and sticky orange cake tray bake recipe

I did some baking last weekend, and as usual I adapted someone else's recipes to match what I had available in my cupboards. This can be a bit of a hit or miss approach, but this time the result was definitely a hit, so I thought I'd share the recipe. I made both of these cakes at once by making a base mixture, then adding cocoa powder to one half of it. You can make both together or make each separately. It's surprisingly hard to choose between the two cakes, you think any cake with chocolate in it would win hands down, but there's something utterly delicious about the sticky orange cake.

Recipe for making both at once

For the sponges 

275g room temperature butter (plus a little extra for greasing the tin)

275g golden caster sugar 

4 large eggs 

275g self-raising flour (sifted) (or 260 g of plain flour and 15 g (= nearly 4 tsp) of baking powder) 

2 large oranges (zest of both oranges and the juice of one) 

5 tbsp cocoa powder (for the chocolate and orange sponge only)

For the sticky orange drizzle for the sticky orange cake

50g golden caster sugar 

Juice of half the second orange

For the chocolate and orange icing

2 tsp cocoa powder

3 tbsp icing sugar

Juice of around quarter of the second orange (enough to form the icing into a thick paste)

1. Grease two 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch) square cake tins with butter and line them with baking paper (if you only have one suitable tin, you can bake one cake at a time). Just a single strip of baking paper will do for the lining, ideally with enough left sticking out of each end of the tin to allow you to use it to pull the cake out when cooked.

2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees without fan or 180 degrees with fan.

3. Optionally weigh your mixing bowl and write down the weight, so you can work out how much precisely half the mixture is later.

4. In your mixing bowl cream together the room temperature butter and sugar until light, fluffy and paler in colour (it's best to use a mixer for this). 

5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating really well between each egg you add. 

6. Sift the flour (and baking powder if using plain flour).

5. Fold the flour (and baking powder) into your cake mixture until well combined

6. Use a grater to zest both oranges and use a juicer to juice one of them.

7. Add the orange zest of both oranges and the juice from the one orange you have juiced to the cake mixture.  Put the other zested orange in the fridge for later.

8. Stir well - if you are using a mixer, I recommend hand stirring at the end to make sure the mixture is thoroughly mixed, my mixer did not evenly mix all the ingredients.

9. Put half of the mixture into the prepared cake tin and make sure it is evenly distributed so that it has a flat top. If you weighed your mixing bowl first, you can work out precisely half as follows:

Deduct the weight of the empty bowl from the weight of the full bowl (e.g. full bowl = 1,830 g, empty bowl = 700 g, difference = 1,130 g). Divide the difference by 2 ( e.g. 1130 g /2 = 565 g). This is the amount the cake mix for each sponge should weigh. So after you have removed it from the mixing bowl, the mixing bowl should weigh the amount of the full bowl less half the difference (in my example 1,830 g - 565 g = 1,265 g).

11. To make the chocolate and orange sponge, add 5 tbsp of cocoa powder to the remaining cake mixture in the mix bowl and mix thoroughly.

12. Pour this mixture into the second prepared cake tin and bake both sponges in the oven for 20 minutes until they are well risen and springy to the touch and a skewer comes out of it clean (i.e. without unbaked cake mixture sticking to it). If you don't have two tins, simply stick the chocolate and orange cake mixture in the fridge until your cake tin is available again - it's then the same instructions as above to bake it.

13. While the sticky orange cake is baking mix the drizzle. Place the golden caster sugar in a small bowl. Juice half of the remaining orange you have been storing in the fridge and pour this juice onto the golden caster sugar and stir thoroughly.

14. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave them in the tins. 

15. While the sticky orange sponge is still hot, drizzle or brush over the orange drizzle. You can use a pastry brush for the brushing.

16. Now leave both cakes to cool in their tins until cold. 

17. While the cakes are cooling, mix the chocolate and orange icing. To do this, put the cocoa powder and icing sugar in a small bowl. Juice the remaining half an orange and slowly add the juice to the cocoa powder and icing sugar, stirring all the while, until you have formed a thick mixture with just enough give in it to spread evenly on a cake. This will probably be around half the juice of that half orange (i.e. the juice of quarter of an orange).

18. When they're cold, lift the cakes from the tins using the paper to help you. 

19. Spread the chocolate and orange icing over the cold chocolate and orange sponge.

20. Cut the cakes into squares or rectangles. Suggested numbers of squares are 16 per sponge (3 cuts by 3 cuts to divide the cake into 4 in each direction), 20 per sponge (3 cuts to divide the cake into 4 in one direction and 4 cuts to divide it into 5 in the other - this is what I did after lengthy negotiations on portion size with my husband) or 25 per sponge (4 cuts by 4 cuts to divide the cake into 5 in each direction).

This cake will keep up to one week in a tin. I kept out what we expected to eat and froze the rest. I haven't yet tested how well it freezes, but based on other cakes I've made recently, taking out the squares you want to eat about an hour in advance should work well.

Recipe for just chocolate and orange cake (you can halve this recipe)

For the sponges 

275g room temperature butter (plus a little extra for greasing the tin)

275g golden caster sugar 

4 large eggs 

275g self-raising flour (sifted) (or 260 g of plain flour and 15 g (= nearly 4 tsp) of baking powder) 

2 large oranges (zest of both oranges and the juice of one) 

10 tbsp cocoa powder (for the chocolate and orange sponge only)

For the chocolate and orange icing

4 tsp cocoa powder

6 tbsp icing sugar

Juice of around half of the second orange (enough to form the icing into a thick paste)

1. Grease two 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch) square cake tins with butter and line them with baking paper (if you only have one suitable tin, you can bake one cake at a time or halve the recipe and just bake half of it). Just a single strip of baking paper will do for the lining, ideally with enough left sticking out of each end of the tin to allow you to use it to pull the cake out when cooked.

2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees without fan or 180 degrees with fan.

3. Optionally weigh your mixing bowl and write down the weight, so you can work out how much precisely half the mixture is later.

4. In your mixing bowl cream together the room temperature butter and sugar until light, fluffy and paler in colour (it's best to use a mixer for this). 

5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating really well between each egg you add. 

6. Sift the flour (and baking powder if using plain flour).

5. Fold the flour (and baking powder) into your cake mixture until well combined

6. Use a grater to zest both oranges and use a juicer to juice one of them.

7. Add the orange zest of both oranges and the juice from the one orange you have juiced to the cake mixture.  Put the other zested orange in the fridge for later.

8. Add the cocoa powder.

9. Stir well - if you are using a mixer, I recommend hand stirring at the end to make sure the mixture is thoroughly mixed, my mixer did not evenly mix all the ingredients.

10. Put half of the mixture into each prepared cake tin and make sure it is evenly distributed so that it has a flat top. If you weighed your mixing bowl first, you can work out precisely half as follows:

Deduct the weight of the empty bowl from the weight of the full bowl (e.g. full bowl = 1,830 g, empty bowl = 700 g, difference = 1,130 g). Divide the difference by 2 ( e.g. 1130 g /2 = 565 g). This is the amount the cake mix for each sponge should weigh. So after you have removed it from the mixing bowl, the mixing bowl should weigh the amount of the full bowl less half the difference (in my example 1,830 g - 565 g = 1,265 g).

11. Bake both sponges in the oven for 20 minutes until they are well risen and springy to the touch and a skewer comes out of it clean (i.e. without unbaked cake mixture sticking to it). 

12. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave them in the tins until cold. 

13. While the cakes are cooling, mix the chocolate and orange icing. To do this, put the cocoa powder and icing sugar in a small bowl. Juice the remaining half an orange and slowly add the juice to the cocoa powder and icing sugar, stirring all the while, until you have formed a thick mixture with just enough give in it to spread evenly on a cake. This will probably be around half the juice of that half orange (i.e. the juice of quarter of an orange).

14. When they're cold, lift the cakes from the tins using the paper to help you. 

15. Spread half the chocolate and orange icing over each cake.

16. Cut the cakes into squares or rectangles. Suggested numbers of squares are 16 per sponge (3 cuts by 3 cuts to divide the cake into 4 in each direction), 20 per sponge (3 cuts to divide the cake into 4 in one direction and 4 cuts to divide it into 5 in the other - this is what I did after lengthy negotiations on portion size with my husband) or 25 per sponge (4 cuts by 4 cuts to divide the cake into 5 in each direction).

This cake will keep up to one week in a tin. I kept out what we expected to eat and froze the rest. I haven't yet tested how well it freezes, but based on other cakes I've made recently, taking out the squares you want to eat about an hour in advance should work well.

Recipe for just sticky orange cake

For the sponges 

275g room temperature butter (plus a little extra for greasing the tin)

275g golden caster sugar 

4 large eggs 

275g self-raising flour (sifted) (or 260 g of plain flour and 15 g (= nearly 4 tsp) of baking powder) 

2 large oranges (zest of both oranges and the juice of one) 

For the sticky orange drizzle for the sticky orange cake

100g golden caster sugar 

Juice of the second orange

1. Grease two 20 cm x 20 cm (8 inch) square cake tins with butter and line them with baking paper (if you only have one suitable tin, you can bake one cake at a time or halve the recipe and just bake half of it). Just a single strip of baking paper will do for the lining, ideally with enough left sticking out of each end of the tin to allow you to use it to pull the cake out when cooked.

2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees without fan or 180 degrees with fan.

3. Optionally weigh your mixing bowl and write down the weight, so you can work out how much precisely half the mixture is later.

4. In your mixing bowl cream together the room temperature butter and sugar until light, fluffy and paler in colour (it's best to use a mixer for this). 

5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating really well between each egg you add. 

6. Sift the flour (and baking powder if using plain flour).

5. Fold the flour (and baking powder) into your cake mixture until well combined

6. Use a grater to zest both oranges and use a juicer to juice one of them.

7. Add the orange zest of both oranges and the juice from the one orange you have juiced to the cake mixture.

8. Stir well - if you are using a mixer, I recommend hand stirring at the end to make sure the mixture is thoroughly mixed, my mixer did not evenly mix all the ingredients.

9. Put half of the mixture into each prepared cake tin and make sure it is evenly distributed so that it has a flat top. If you weighed your mixing bowl first, you can work out precisely half as follows:

Deduct the weight of the empty bowl from the weight of the full bowl (e.g. full bowl = 1,830 g, empty bowl = 700 g, difference = 1,130 g). Divide the difference by 2 ( e.g. 1130 g /2 = 565 g). This is the amount the cake mix for each sponge should weigh. So after you have removed it from the mixing bowl, the mixing bowl should weigh the amount of the full bowl less half the difference (in my example 1,830 g - 565 g = 1,265 g).

10. Bake both sponges in the oven for 20 minutes until they are well risen and springy to the touch and a skewer comes out of it clean (i.e. without unbaked cake mixture sticking to it). 

11. While the sticky orange cake is baking mix the drizzle. Place the golden caster sugar in a small bowl. Juice half of the remaining orange you have been storing in the fridge and pour this juice onto the golden caster sugar and stir thoroughly.

12. Take the cakes out of the oven and leave them in the tins. 

13. While the sticky orange sponge is still hot, drizzle or brush over the orange drizzle. You can use a pastry brush for the brushing.

14. Now leave both cakes to cool in their tins until cold. 

15. When they're cold, lift the cakes from the tins using the paper to help you. 

16. Cut the cakes into squares or rectangles. Suggested numbers of squares are 16 per sponge (3 cuts by 3 cuts to divide the cake into 4 in each direction), 20 per sponge (3 cuts to divide the cake into 4 in one direction and 4 cuts to divide it into 5 in the other - this is what I did after lengthy negotiations on portion size with my husband) or 25 per sponge (4 cuts by 4 cuts to divide the cake into 5 in each direction).

This cake will keep up to one week in a tin. I kept out what we expected to eat and froze the rest. I haven't yet tested how well it freezes, but based on other cakes I've made recently, taking out the squares you want to eat about an hour in advance should work well.