Ina Garten's Orange and Chocolate Cake

I needed something chocolate, but different to take to my scrapbooking event last Friday. I usually bring brownies, which everyone seems to like, but I needed a change. I needed a challenge, and wanted to try something new. Enter Ina Garten, who is a dessert expert. I like her style, and I am intrigued by her new show on the Food Network- Back to Basics. Well, if you know me, that is definitely speaking my language. I love basic recipes that I can dress up or down, depending on my mood. This cake was a winner, moist and buttery, but zingy and acidic with the lemon and orange zests. Bright and flavorful, I will definitely make this again!

First you start by creaming the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Look for bakers sugar the next time you are at the grocery store. It’s recipes like this that really benefit from a smaller sugar crystal. The result is a fluffy, whipped base for your cake, which will keep everything aloft and avoid the cake tasting dry. Also, use the sugar called for by the recipe for a dessert. Even though I am a proponent of reducing sugar, this is a cake, not a breakfast. It isn’t coffee cake or a muffin, so you need the sugar to keep the cake moist. Also, your butter should be room temperature. Bakers call this consistency “plastic”. It should be pliable and soft, but should not be oozing or melting. Best bet is out of the fridge and onto the counter for at least an hour. When you don’t have that kind of time, try your microwave on a reduced power for less than 1 minute. If it’s still too cold, turn it around before microwaving it longer. Once you have these two things down, just beat for a little bit longer than normal to get this beautiful fluffiness. About 3 minutes should do.To the butter add the eggs, orange and lemon zests, and vanilla. Beat until mixed. Then you add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, alternating each starting with and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined, using your rubber spatula to finish if necessary. This is a thick cake batter! Pour the batter into a buttered tube or Bundt pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Then cool in the pan for 10 minutes before trying to turn out your cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the frosting on this, a chocolate ganache is the perfect compliment. I love chocolate ganache. Chris makes fun of me for saying the name, but I think it’s the perfect chocolate icing. Denser than icing, and less sweet, it’s a great thing to use when you just want to pour icing on the cake. It’s the perfect choice for a Bundt cake, where it would be kind of silly to frost.

Start with a cup of chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler.I added one shot of espresso...
And a half-cup of heavy cream. Heat over barely simmering water whisking to combine the ingredients.
Once melted, pour over the cake slowly, going around the circle a couple times. You could do this over a cooling rack, but then you'd lose some of the ganache. Since it is so yummy, I recommend just doing this on the serving tray, being careful to not let too much flow in one spot and run off the tray. Don't worry about getting too much in the center of the cake. It gets trapped there and is a yummy treat on the slices with a little extra chocolate. Once ganached, place the cake in the fridge so that the chocolate sets. Slice and serve.

http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/09/this-cake-has-a-hole-in-it/

Note: I made a couple adaptations to this recipe. I didn't use the chocolate chips in the cake. I liked it this way, but if you think that would be good, by all means use them! Also, I skipped the orange sugar glaze. I made the cake a day before my event, and everyone remarked on how moist it was. I was worried that the glaze might make it gooey or sticky, so I avoided it.