Is there anyone who doesn’t love the combination of chocolate and orange and of course a Terry’s Chocolate Orange is always a treat!

This loaf cake uses orange extract to get the right hit and it’s a light chocolate orange sponge, packed full of chocolate orange pieces and finally decorated with a chocolate orange buttercream. Oh did I mention it’s decorated with Chocolate Orange pieces too? Yea a lot of chocolate orange here but absolutely no one is complaining!

The cake is baked at a low heat and for around an hour to prevent it drying out and it works really well.

I made this recipe as one of the desserts for a party and everyone wanted a piece! You can go all out with the decorations or keep it relatively simple. I’ve listed a couple of ideas below which might help.

Ingredients:

For the Sponge Cake:

200g butter, softened
200g caster sugar (I reduced this to 120g)
2 tsp Orange Extract
4 eggs, large
1 tbsp milk
175g Self Raising Flour
25g Cocoa Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Terry’s Chocolate Orange, chopped up (optional – you can leave it out if you prefer)

You can decorate this cake for a simpler result by melting some chocolate orange segments and spreading it over the top. Keep some aside and top the melted chocolate.

Alternatively you can dust the cooled cake with icing sugar or melt white chocolate and drizzle over the top or finally, you can sprinkle the zest of an orange across the top.

For the Buttercream:

150g unsalted butter, softened
275g Icing Sugar
25g Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Orange Extract
1 1/2 tbsp milk

To decorate:

1/2 Terry’s Chocolate Orange segments

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C Fan or 180C Conventional. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy. Please spend a good few minutes doing this so you will get a lovely, light result.

Next, add the Orange Extract, eggs and milk and again, beat until nice and smooth.

Once all the wet ingredients are combined, you whisk in the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder until everything is well combined

The next step is to fold in the chopped chocolate orange pieces. Just fold in gently so you don’t knock out the air you beat in earlier but also you want the chocolate evenly dispersed.

Use a large spoon to transfer the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top.

Bake for an hour but check with a skewer into the centre – it should come out clean. Leave to cool completely.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter and icing sugar together and once it starts to come together, add the orange extract and milk and beat until very smooth.

Put the buttercream into an icing bag with your nozzle of choice and pipe on the loaf. If you prefer, you can simply use a spatula to smooth the icing over the cake

Decorate with the remaining segments of Terry’s Chocolate Orange pieces. I placed them in a line down the centre of the loaf, just gently pushed into the buttercream.

I melted some white chocolate and drizzled a little over the top.

Will this last for 3 days?? 🙂 Well it can do if stored in an airtight container. It’s surprisingly light and there is a great kick of orange flavour. A perfect party centrepiece!

I’d love to hear if you make this. Just pop your comment below.

Bake with love

Soraya x