Orange Chocolate cake

1. Preparation of orange cake begins with baking sponge cakes. We start with orange. Soft butter is whipped with sugar until white and doubled in size. We introduce eggs into the mass one by one. Each added egg is well mixed with a mixer.

Sift the flour into a dry deep bowl, add baking powder and stir well. The uniform distribution of baking powder in the flour will ensure the correct rise of the cakes, and the whole cake will be tender and airy. The flour is introduced into the oil mixture in small portions. We mix each dose well, you can do it with a silicone spatula, or you can use a mixer. As soon as all the flour is evenly mixed in the dough, add orange juice and vanilla extract.

Grease two baking pans with butter and sprinkle a little flour. Pour the dough into two molds equally, bake for 25-30 minutes. We check the readiness with a wooden skewer, it should remain dry.

We take out the ready-made cakes from the oven immediately, leave them in the form for 5 minutes, and then just put them on the grill. This time is necessary so that the finished pastry is stabilized and does not crumble.

2. While the orange cakes are being baked, we prepare the chocolate dough. As in the first case, beat the butter with sugar until fluffy and white. Without ceasing to work with the mixer, we introduce one egg at a time. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients and add them to the oil mixture in small portions. As soon as the whole dry part is well stirred, pour in the milk, stir until smooth.

We lubricate two forms with oil, we can sprinkle with flour. The dough is evenly divided into two forms. By this time, the orange cakes have already been baked, which means we are sending chocolate cakes to the oven. Bake until the skewer is dry.

3. As soon as the chocolate cakes are sent to the oven, you can devote time to chocolate ganache. Dark (or bitter black - optional) chocolate is broken into small pieces. In a small saucepan with a thick bottom, bring the cream to a boil. Boil for a minute, turn off and leave to cool for a couple of minutes. Pour the cream over the chocolate, stir until the mass becomes homogeneous and glossy. As soon as the chocolate mass cools down a little, we send it to the refrigerator for thickening.

4. To layer the cake, you will need not only ganache, but also orange curd. To prepare it in a saucepan, combine egg yolks and powdered sugar. Stir the ingredients, pour in the orange juice, add the zest, combine until smooth. We put it on a slow fire, stirring constantly with a spatula (not metal), bring it to the required density. Remove from heat, cool slightly, add butter in small portions and beat the curd with a mixer. Cover the finished kurd with cling film in contact so that a crust does not form and leave until it cools. If the whole cream is not used at one time, the leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a month.

5. When both types of cream and cakes have cooled down enough, we can start assembling the cake. On the dish in which we will serve dessert, we put the first orange cake. We smear it with chocolate ganache, put a large spoonful of orange curd in the center and distribute it evenly. We put the chocolate cake on top, spread it in the same way. This is followed by an orange cake and after that we complete the process with chocolate. We send the cake to the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

6. The upper side of the chocolate sponge cake, which will be the front, is lubricated only with ganache. We level it with a spatula and decorate it as desired. Bright orange meringue, chocolate chips or drops look good on the finished cake. You can make drops from the remaining ganache. We send it to the microwave oven so that it becomes more liquid, pour it into a bag and draw patterns on the cake. It is necessary to water the already cooled cake, then the pattern will be more pronounced.

Decorate the cake to your taste (for example, as in the photo - orange meringues, chocolate drops and shavings, candied fruit pieces), then send it to the refrigerator for 45 minutes, and then serve it to the table.

Have a nice tea party!