A wonderfully soft Chocolate Orange Cake made using fresh oranges, topped with a fudgy chocolate orange ganache frosting. You won’t be able to stop at just one piece!
I’m converted.
Not one to ever pick a chocolate orange dessert, I wasn’t sure how I would go when I decided to develop a recipe for a Chocolate Orange Cake. But I can honestly say, I’m now the BIGGEST fan.
I ate this cake almost every day this week, savouring every last bite of that fudgy choc orange frosting. It’s a fantastic celebration cake or Friday night fave for choc orange lovers everywhere – and those yet to join the bandwagon.
Why you will love this cake
- It’s undeniably choc orange with real fruit flavour.
- You don’t need any weird or hard-to-find ingredients.
- The cake is soft and tender and stays fresh for days.
- The chocolate ganache frosting is HEAVEN and can easily be made ahead of time.
Recipe testing
What I was looking for: A soft and tender chocolate cake infused with real orange flavour, thanks to plenty of orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice. Cocoa is a strong flavour, so I wanted to make sure when you reached in to take a bite, you knew unmistakably that this was a choc orange cake.
I’ve also recently been testing recipes for chocolate ganache frosting and knew this rich, dark, fudgy frosting would pair beautifully with this cake. Infusing the cream with orange zest is an easy way to add even more flavour to this delicious frosting.
I used my favourite Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe as the starting point for this recipe. It creates a beautifully soft and tender cake, so I made a few tweaks to amp up the orange flavour and was SO happy with the result.
ingredients for the cake
- Butter: Salted or unsalted is fine. If you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt to the dry ingredients. Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature so you can easily beat it together with the sugar, until pale and creamy. This is commonly referred to as ‘creaming.’
- Caster sugar: Caster sugar is a fine white sugar used for baking in Australia. If you don’t have easy access to it, use granulated sugar instead. Read more about caster sugar here.
- Brown sugar: For a little extra flavour, we also add a little brown sugar. Light or dark brown sugar is fine. I typically use light (regular brown sugar in Australia).
- Eggs: Make sure your eggs are at room temperature so they will incorporate easily with the other ingredients.
- Plain flour: Use plain flour or all purpose flour for this recipe.
- Cocoa powder: This recipe calls for regular 100% natural cocoa. It should not be sweetened.
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Orange juice and zest: Use fresh oranges – you’ll need approximately three for this recipe.
- Full fat milk: Be sure to use full fat or whole milk for the cake, rather than light or reduced fat milk.
How to make it
- Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature, then start by creaming together the butter and sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed. After a few minutes, your butter should be pale and creamy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and beat briefly on a low speed until mixture is combined. Your mixture may look at little curdled at this point – that’s ok! Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, add plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and orange zest and lightly whisk together.
- Then add dry ingredients, along with the freshly squeezed orange juice and milk, to the butter mixture. Mix on a low speed until all the ingredients are combined and you have a creamy chocolate cake batter. Perfect!
- Pour chocolate batter into prepared cake pan and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake in pan to cool completely, but place the pan on a cooling rack.
Lets talk frosting
This frosting is truly amazing. It is basically a chocolate ganache, which is what you get when you combine chocolate and cream. But to make it extra special, we infuse the cream with orange zest and also add a little butter for richness. For the best results, start with the best ingredients.
Cream: Be sure to use a high fat (at least 30%) cream for the ganache frosting. Don’t use pre-whipped cream or a light/reduced fat cream. I tested this recipe using thickened cream.
Orange: You’ll need the zest of one orange, finely grated.
Dark chocolate: I recommend using a good quality block of dark or semi sweet chocolate (50-70% cocoa). I use either Nestle Plaistowe dark chocolate or Cadbury Baking dark chocolate for this recipe. Chocolate chips will work but since they are designed to keep their shape when baking, they can take longer to melt. I also prefer to chop a block of chocolate by hand so I’m in control of how fine I want it.
Butter: And a little butter, because butter ❤️ Salted or unsalted is fine.
How to make chocolate ganache
You can make ganache on the stove or in the microwave. For this frosting, I find the stove top method to be the easiest.
- Begin by adding your cream to a medium saucepan and placing it on a low heat. Add orange zest. Stir gently and let it warm up until it’s hot to the touch. You may turn the heat up to medium but DO NOT let the cream come to a boil. Slow and steady wins the race here.
- Add chopped chocolate and continue to stir until all the chocolate melts and ganache is smooth.
- Finally, add butter. Stir until melted. Remove ganache from heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Leave to cool at room temperature for 15-30 minutes.
- Cover with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge for 3-4 hours to firm up. I like to stir my ganache every hour to make sure it cools evenly.
- When ganache is thick enough to spread, generously frost the top of your Chocolate Orange Cake.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. This recipe will make two 8 inch cakes or three 6 inch cakes.
Yes you can (although this frosting truly is worth trying!). Check out my Chocolate Buttercream recipe.
Give it time. The frosting will take around 3 hours to thicken – maybe longer depending on your ingredients, how hot the mixture was and the temperature of your fridge. If you are in a hurry, pop it in the freezer. Also make sure you use the right cream – a full fat version please!
Don’t panic. You can either take your ganache out of the fridge and let come back to room temperature or – if you’re in rush – microwave it for 20-30 seconds until it reaches your desired consistency.
More chocolate cakes to try
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Let’s Bake
Chocolate Orange Cake
Chocolate orange sheet cake topped with a fudgy chocolate orange ganache.
Ingredients
Chocolate orange cake
- 230 grams (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 200 grams (1 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 135 grams (3/4 cup) brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 245 grams (1 and 3/4 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 60 grams (3/4 cup) cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Zest of 2 oranges, finely grated
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 240 ml (1 cup) full fat or whole milk
Chocolate orange ganache frosting
- 360 ml (1 and 1/2 cups) thickened or heavy cream*
- Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
- 400 grams good quality dark chocolate*, finely chopped
- 30 grams butter, softened
Instructions
- Chocolate orange cake
Grease and line the bottom of a quarter sheet pan (9 by 13 inches) with baking or parchment paper. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. - In a large mixing bowl, add butter and sugars and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale and creamy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, and beat briefly on a low speed until mixture is combined. It may look a little curdled here – that’s ok. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, add plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and orange zest and lightly whisk.
- Add dry ingredients, along with the orange juice and milk, to the butter mixture. Mix on a low speed until all the ingredients are combined and you have a creamy chocolate cake batter.
- Pour chocolate batter into prepared cake pan and bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake in pan to cool completely, but place the pan on a cooling rack.
- Chocolate orange ganache
Pour cream into a medium saucepan. Place on a low heat. Add orange zest and stir while cream is warming and being infused with orange flavour. - Once the cream is warm (but not boiling), add chopped chocolate. Continue to stir while chocolate melts and becomes smooth. Add butter and stir until melted. Ganache should be smooth and glossy.
- Remove chocolate ganache from heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Let it cool for 15 minutes and then place it in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours. Give it a stir every hour.
- Once the ganache is thick enough to spread, frost top of cake using a small spatula.
Notes
Cake shape and size: I used a quarter sheet pan (9 by 13 inches) for this recipe. You can use this recipe to make two 8 inch cakes or three 6 inch cakes.
Orange juice: I recommend using freshly squeezed orange juice for maximum flavour. However, if you would like to use bottled orange juice, just make sure it’s 100% orange juice.
Cocoa powder: I tested this recipe with 100% natural cocoa powder – it should not be sweetened.
Cream: Be sure to use a high fat (at least 30%) cream for the ganache frosting. Don’t use pre-whipped cream or light cream. I tested this recipe using thickened cream.
Dark chocolate: I recommend using a good quality block of dark or semi sweet chocolate (50-70% cocoa). I make this recipe using either Nestle Plaistowe dark chocolate or Cadbury Baking dark chocolate.
Ganache frosting: This frosting will take a few hours to chill in the fridge. Time and temperature will turn the ganache from runny to thick and fudgy. Times will vary, so check on your ganache every hour, giving it a quick stir, until it reaches your desired consistency. My ganache takes roughly 3 hours to thicken. You can make it ahead of time but it will continue to harden in the fridge. So you can either, leave it out of the fridge to soften slightly or microwave for 20-30 seconds at a time, until it’s soft enough to work with.
Rish says
Hi Jess, Will this cake have the same smoothness of the “The best Chocolate Fudge Cake” should I add any sour cream for this one as well.
Jessica Holmes says
Yes it’s quite similar! I think you’ll love it.
Lucia says
This cake sounds amazing. I want to try making it. So my question is : can I use cake flour and if yes, do I still need baking soda and baking powder? Thank you so.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Lucia, I haven’t tested this cake with cake flour but it should work. Although typically, you need to add a little extra cake flour as it is finer than plain flour or all purpose flour, rather than swapping it 1:1. It doesn’t have any raising agent in it, so yes you would still need to use the baking powder and soda. I hope you enjoy it.
Lucia Galusca says
I will try. Will let you know of the result. Thank you.
Tessa says
Just a thought Jessica, I would love to try this recipe as chocolate and a little chilli. What would you suggest I replace the orange juice with? Thanks.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Tessa, sounds amazing! You could have a play around with adding extra milk or water to make up the difference. However, you would want to add something acidic if you’re not using the orange juice so perhaps you could use buttermilk? Or add a tablespoon of white vinegar or fresh lemon juice to the milk.
Tessa says
Our family is in love with this cake. My go to chocolate cake for sure!
Jessica Holmes says
Yas! Love hearing that Tessa!
Savana says
Could I use this batter for cupcakes? If so, how many cupcakes would this recipe make?
Jessica Holmes says
Absolutely! It’ll make approximately 24-26 cupcakes.
Huma says
I used this recipe and baked in two 8 inch tins… the cake has turned out amazing !!
Jessica Holmes says
So happy to hear that Huma!
Jenny says
Hi Jessica
I would like to freeze this cake , is it better to ice the cake before freezing or after defrosted .
Thanks
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Jenny, I definitely think it’s better to frost it after it’s been defrosted.
Hayley says
Orange & chocolate – there’s no better combination! This cake is amazing!! Moist, easy to make & that chocolate orange ganache is the best, especially with Terry’s choc oranges on top!
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you loved it Hayley! And how good are Terrys! ☺️
Derek says
I made this cake for the first time for my best friend’s 37th birthday, because he loves the South Australian orange flavoured kit kats. It’s was a crowd pleaser. And it only took 3 hours from start to finish.
Jessica Holmes says
Hooray! So glad to hear that Derek!
Polly says
I have made this cake twice. Once as a traybake and once as a two layer cake for a birthday. My family and I love it!!
Jessica Holmes says
Yes! So glad you love it as much as I do!!
Carol Sowerby says
I made this in two 8inch sandwich tins , sandwiched and topped with the ganache , the placed a Terry’s chocolate orange into segments around the top of the cake .
Jessica Holmes says
That sounds amazing Carol!
Natalie says
Delicious! The cake was so moist and fluffy. I don’t usually like chocolate cake but loved this!
Jessica Holmes says
Yaaay! So glad you enjoyed it!
Danielle says
This is my new favourite, so amazing!👌😍
Jessica Holmes says
Yes! Love hearing that Danielle!
Krystine says
Delicious! Made this into muffins and froze them (without the ganache)
Jessica Holmes says
Brilliant idea!
Veronica says
If I really don’t have whole milk (since we never drink that at home), would using 2% skim milk make a HUGEE difference (in a bad way), or can I still use it?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Veronica, you can use it. The difference will probably be minimal.