At the weekend I made a chocolate marmalade cake. I was really excited and had been looking forward to it for days. I love the taste of sticky orange marmalade – especially the thick cut variety. So when I set down to make the cake I decided to follow a recipe to the tee so that it would taste delicious! I often go off on a tangent of my own when cooking and rarely weigh any ingredients, so this was pretty much a first me.
I settled on a recipe made famous by Nigella Lawson, though I strongly recommend you adjust the cooking time unless your oven doesn’t actually bake anything! My cake was done in half the time Nigella said it would take, so it ended up a bit burnt!
To make a chocolate marmalade cake you will need:
Ingredients
- 125 g butter (plus optional 50g for the topping)
- 100 g good quality dark chocolate (plus optional 50g for the topping)
- 300 g marmalade (plus optional 50g for the topping)
- 150 g castor sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 150 flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- A little orange zest for decoration
Let’s bake!
- First you should preheat the oven to 180 C
- Then sift together flour and baking powder in a bowl and set aside.
- Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat. When it has melted completely, add the chocolate pieces, stirring as you go and allow them to melt. Keep stirring until the chocolate-butter mixture is completely smooth and has no lumps.
- Now add your marmalade(!) sugar and the beaten eggs. Keep stirring until it is all mixed together.
- Sieve in the flour little by little until there are no lumps or streaks.
- Pour the mixture into a greased 9-inch baking tin and bake at 180 C for 40 minutes (you made need even less than this if your oven is top-notch like mine!) or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Once the cake is done, allow it to cool for a few minutes.
- Next, make chocolate butter cream by melting chocolate in a bowl over boiling water (do not let the water touch the bowl).
- Beat the butter until is has a smooth, creamy texture then mix into the melted chocolate.
- Spread the remaining marmalade over the top of the cake and, whilst it is sticky, pour over the chocolate buttercream.
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES
SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES - Grate some orange zest over the top to finish.
Ta dah!
If I bake this cake again I think I’d make a two tier sponge and use marmalade in the middle, or make a loaf cake. On its own, the single tier as Nigella recommends doesn’t do the cake justice – it tastes lovely but looks a bit… sorry for itself!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
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