Orange & Chocolate pound cake

I made this Orange and Chocolate pound cake for Lana's nursery teachers who have been very nice to Lana (and me) since she started going there in April.

It's a variation of vanilla pound cake. The basic ingredient for a pound cake is equal amount of eggs, sugar, flour and butter (I usually weigh the eggs so that I know exactly how many grams of other ingredients I need), and you can vary it by adding chocolate, jams or flavourings whatever you fancy.

For this cake, I divided the batter into two potions and added orange juice to one, and chocolate to the other. For the butter cream, I added orange marmalade and also poured marmalade syrup over the cake before I sprinkled it with bits of dark chocolate and white chocolate.

I had a slice to taste it. It was lovely. Nice and moist, the refreshing flavour of orange went really well with the chocolate and the sweet butter cream.

The nursery teachers loved the cake too. They told me more cakes are welcome any time...;)

Two chocolate cakes

Some people might have already noticed that there are considerably small amounts of chocolate things on my blog... It's because neither of us eat it (unfortunately it gives us a great headache..;(...)

However, that doesn't stop me from using it for cakes and breads. In fact, I quite like working with it! I think chocolate gives cakes and breads just a touch of special indulgent feeling to them. :)

So so so..., at the weekend I made two different chocolate cakes.

One was an ultimate chocolate birthday cake for Brian, who as far as I know loves chocolate. The cake had cocoa powder and melted dark chocolate in it and drizzle of white chocolate, bits of milk chocolate and chocolate cake, and 'Happy Birthday' written with raspberry flavoured white chocolate (which kind of got pressed when I wrapped it...). Hope the cake filled the birthday boy's chocolate hole. ;)

The other one was white chocolate bundt cakelets for Andy to take to the office. Oh see, these mini bundt cake tins are so cute! When I saw it, I had to get it. ;D I added bits of chocolate cake from the cut of Brian's cake in the batter and filled the middle with chocolate sauce.

That was fun doing chocolate cakes, and these are the times that I wish I ate chocolate...

Sachertorte

Day 2 of the baking week..., please welcome Miss "Sachertorte"!

This super rich chocolate cake originally from Vienna, Austria is a must-try for chocolate lovers. The moist chocolate texture coated with a thick chocolate garnish looks professional, yet quite easy to make.

Ingredients;

Plain flour 45g

Cocoa powder 45g

Baking powder 1tsp

3 Egg

Sugar 90g

Butter 15g

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Dark Chocolate 100g

Double cream 80g

Apricot jam 2tbsp

Water or Liquor of your choice 1tbsp

1. Sift Flour, Cocoa powder and Baking powder together. Melt the Butter in the microwave. Pre-heat the oven to 180º.

2. Beat the Egg and Sugar together until it becomes white-ish and foamy.

3. Add 1 into 2, and fold in gently.

4. Sprinkle the melted Butter into 3, and mix.

5. Pour the mixture in a cake tin.

6. Bake in the pre-heated oven (180º) for 30 minutes.

7. When the cake is baked, cool it down on a cake cooler.

8. Make the chocolate garnish. In a little pot, heat the Cream up (DO NOT boil it). Turn the heat off and add the chopped chocolate. Mix well, until the chocolate is fully melted.

9. In a small bowl, mix Apricot jam and Water/Liquor, and microwave it to warm it up.

10. Slice the cake in the middle. Spread the apricot jam mixture and chocolate garnish.

11. Put the top back on and pour the chocolate garnish, and cover the cake thoroughly.

12. Cool the cake in the fridge.