Moist Chocolate Orange Cake
This super moist chocolate orange cake is made in one bowl and is made with fresh oranges, and frosted with chocolate orange buttercream.
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 ½ cups Flour
- ½ cup Cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoon Baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 2 cups Granulated sugar
- 3 Eggs
- ¾ cup Vegetable oil
- 1 cup Orange juice freshly squeezed
- 1 cup Hot coffee
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon Orange zest
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
For the chocolate frosting:
- 340 g Butter
- 2 cups Powder sugar
- ⅓ cup Cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 100 g Semisweet chocolate melted and cooled
- 1 teaspoon Orange zest
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 180 (350f) and prep two 8-inch baking pans with parchment paper.
- Into a big mixing bowl, add the orange juice, eggs, oil, vanilla extract, sugar, and orange zest. Mix well until combined.
- Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, sift the cocoa powder, and mix.
- Add the hot coffee, mix well until the batter is smooth. Don't overmix!
- Divide the mixture into two 8-inch baking pans, we suggest using cake strips for even baking. (weight the batter for better results) and bake in a preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting:
- Make the chocolate frosting: into a large bowl add room temperature butter and mix with a hand mixer or a stand mixer until the butter is light and fluffy.
- Add half of the powder sugar and the cocoa powder and carefully mix until combined.Add the other half of the powder sugar and mix until smooth.
- Melt dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate and let it cool completely to room temperature. Add the melted chocolate to the mixture and mix until well combined and smooth.
- Add the orange zest and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
For the assembly:
- Pipe a small dollop of the frosting on the surface that you will frost on. Lay the first cake layer over the frosting dot.
- Pipe ⅓ of the frosting on top of the cake layer and spread an even layer.
- Top with the second cake layer and frost the cake.
- For decoration, smooth the sides of the cake (it shouldn’t look perfect) and make wave motions on the top of the cake for a rustic look. We like topping this chocolate orange cake with slices of fresh orange.
Notes
Don’t skip the coffee in the cake, you can’t taste the coffee, it simply enhances the chocolate flavor.
Use cake strips! Cake strips give you even and perfectly baked cake layers. Click here for the amazon link.
Cool the melted chocolate before adding it to the chocolate frosting! This step is a must, if the melted chocolate will be hot, it will melt the butter and the chocolate frosting will be ruined.
Use room temperature ingredients. It is important that you use room-temperature ingredients like eggs and butter. This step ensures that your mixture mixes into a homogenous mixture and bakes perfectly. you don’t want to place cold batter into the oven.
Measure your flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have a moist cake and not dense and dry cake.
Line your baking pan with parchment paper! This step helps the cake to bake evenly, and it makes sure that your loaf cake will release easily from the pan.
Make sure that your butter is at room temperature. An hour or two before making these cookies, take the butter out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. The butter should be soft to the touch. If your butter is too cold, it will be harder to mix and there will be lumps of butter in the dough.
Be patient! I know it’s extremely tempting to frost this cake as it is pulled out of the oven, but let the cake cool for at least 1 hour so it will be more firm and won’t crumble up, and prevent the frosting from melting.
Nutrition
Calories: 637kcalCarbohydrates: 84gProtein: 6gFat: 42gSaturated Fat: 19gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gMonounsaturated Fat: 11gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 102mgSodium: 460mgPotassium: 232mgFiber: 4gSugar: 38gVitamin A: 814IUVitamin C: 11mgCalcium: 72mgIron: 3mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!