Chocolate Orange Cake

Name: Chocolate Orange Cake
Ingredients: For the cake:; 2 large clementines (about 200g), cleaned; 4 large free-range eggs; 1 large lemon, zest only; 160g golden caster sugar; 100ml Mellow Yellow Rapeseed Oil; 175g ground almonds; 2 tsp baking powder; For the candied orange peel:; Zest of 1 clementine; 1 tbsp sugar; 1/2 tbsp water; For the ganache:; 180g dark chocolate; 120g double cream

This Chocolate Orange Cake is a rich, moist flourless torte topped with dark chocolate ganache and candied clementine peel – a true festive showstopper that’s great for anytime of the year.

The buttery flavour of Mellow Yellow cold‑pressed rapeseed oil, blended with puréed clementine and ground almonds, gives the sponge its soft, indulgent texture.

Method

1

Place the clementines in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20–30 minutes until tender. Remove and set aside until cool enough to handle. Cut the clementines in half and discard the pips. Put the clementines, including the skin, into a food processor and blend to a paste.
2

Preheat the oven to 160ºC Fan, line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
3

Whisk together the eggs, lemon zest and caster sugar in a bowl. Add Mellow Yellow Rapeseed Oil and beat until light and well combined. Stir in the clementine paste then fold in the ground almonds and baking powder.
4

Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 50 minutes or until well risen and golden-brown. The cake may be slightly lower in the centre. When hot, simply press down the edges to make it level. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
5

To make the candied clementine peel, scrape the pith off the clementine peel and finely chop. Place a small saucepan on a medium heat and add one tablespoon of caster sugar, half a tablespoon of water and the peel. Keep stirring and simmer for 7 minutes. Turn off the heat and add half a tablespoon of water and keep stirring vigorously until crystallised.
6

For the ganache, simply place your double cream and dark chocolate (broken into pieces) in a saucepan and melt over a low heat stirring occasionally. Leave to cool before spreading on the cooled cake. Make a swirl pattern in the ganache and sprinkle on the candied peel.