Chocolate, Orange & Whisky Cake

There seems to be a bit of a running theme developing here...what can I say? Cake is good and this one was especially good.

Orange cake is very common in Brazil and you will find it in nearly every coffee shop/snack bar. They make it in much the same way but in a traditional ring form, like a big doughnut.

I have substituded the type of chocolate powder used for the topping because I could not source 'Padre' (a Nestlé chocolate powder with two priests on the front), using Cadbury's Bournville powder instead.

Preparation Time:
30 minutes

Cooking Time:
1 hour (approx)

Ingredients:
1 large orange
2 eggs
sugar
self-raising flour
a handful of sultanas
whisky
unsalted butter
icing sugar
bournville (or Padre) chocolate powder

Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

Put the sultanas in a glass. Add whisky until about half the sultanas are covered. Stir gently, adding a little sugar until all of the sultanas are wet with whisky. Cover with a small plate or clingfilm and leave to soak.

Wash the orange and cut in half. Cut one half into smaller segments and add to the blender (peel and flesh). Add just the peel of the other half to the mix and blend for 30 seconds.

Weigh the eggs and weigh out the same in butter, sugar and self-raising flour. Add the eggs, butter and sugar to the mix and blend. Add the flour and blend again until all is mixed in well and you can see no lumps moving around.

At this point you need to use a bit of judgement - the cake mix is going to be a bit wetter than a normal cake because we have added the juice of half an orange. Add a little more flour, blending as you go, until the mix looks right...Using a spoon or a spatula, take a big scoop of the mix - if it drips off it is too wet, add some more flour.

Grease a cake tin and lightly dust with plain flour to prevent the cake sticking to it during cooking. Add the mix.

Add the sultanas and whisky on top, folding in very gently to the top layer of the mix. You should still be able to see some of the sultanas poking through.

Put in the oven for approximately one hour (check with a knife to see if the middle is done at about 50 minutes).

Take the cake out of the oven, remove from the tin and leave to cool on a rack.

To make the topping first melt some butter in a pan, do not boil it.

Add some chocolate powder and the same proportion of icing sugar to a bowl and mix evenly, making sure any balls of icing sugar are broken up (you could always sift the powder in instead).

Add the melted butter, mixing it in evenly with a spatula as you go. You want the mix here to be quite thick but if you feel it needs more butter then add some (only needs to be soft at this stage, no need to melt it in the pan again).

Wait until the cake is completely cool (otherwise your butter icing will melt off the sides) and spread the mixture over the top and sides evenly. Wait for the topping to harden a little and serve.