Every time I go back to the UK I return with a Terry’s Chocolate Orange: that obviously won’t be happening for a while, so I was left a bit stuck when a craving hit today. With nothing new planned, and a desire to comfort bake, I turned to my saviour Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Cupboard to find a soloution. As always, the book delivered, and I found a recipe for Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake – looking at the title, I knew this was meant to be.
I still had an abundance of homemade-marmalade from my adventures on day 47, and I like to keep my baking cupboard well stocked for any and every baking-emergency, so I was fully prepared.
One reason why I love Nigella’s writing (as I detailed here) is that it’s so down to earth. This is a recipe designed to whip up when you can’t really be bothered, leave in the oven whilst you’re cooking dinner, and with only a saucepan to wash up at the end of it.
Ok, I didn’t check on it until my timer went off. My oven always runs a little cooler so I expected to have to put it back in anyway, I did not expect to bring it out burnt! That is one reason for the copious amounts of icing sugar on top, the other is how bitter my marmalade is. I’m not a seasoned marmalade eater so I don’t know if that’s how it’s meant to taste or not, but it made an otherwise great cake, with a very bitter aftertaste. To remedy this, I served the cake whilst it was still warm with some hazlenut ice cream, and it tasted so good!
Next time I eat some, I think I’ll try and make a chocolate sauce to go with it: I normally avoid anything too sweet, but in this case I definitely need it to balance out the bitter orange. Not a total success, but it did scratch my chocolate orange itch!
New Day, New Thing 