Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Chocolate Orange Drizzle Loaf Cake

Another winner from Sweet and Simple Bakes! Doesn't just the name of it make you drool? If any of you are amateur bakers, and would like to try out some no-fail recipes, you simply have to come on over and join Maria and Rosie and all the rest of us at Sweet and Simple Bakes. Every single one of their bakes so far (over a year's worth of bakes) have been completely amazing!

In this bake, you first make a simple loaf cake with some orange zest for flavoring. Then you make tiny holes and drizzle orange syrup onto the cake and let it drip down into the cake...mmm!!! Then, if that's not enough to send you racing over to the kitchen, you add a topping of melted chocolate and sprinkles - yes, you simply have to add sprinkles, so that's not optional, though the recipe says it is. So I'm telling you, make this the next time you have company, and you're guaranteed to awe.

(Sorry about the bad photos, but I took these with my phone's camera because my regular one suddenly stopped working as we cut into it!)


Chocolate Orange Drizzle Loaf Cake
(recipe from Sweet and Simple Bakes)

For The cake
175g (6 oz) softened butter
175g (6 oz) caster (super fine) sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
175g (6 oz) self-raising flour, sifted
2 tbsp milk

For The Orange Syrup
Juice of 1 orange
100g (4 oz) granulated sugar

For The Topping

50g (2 oz) dark chocolate or milk chocolate – your choice
Sprinkles of choice (optional)

You will need a 900g (2 lb) loaf tin – greased with a little butter and lined with greaseproof paper or non-stick baking paper.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

In a mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar and beat together until light and fluffy in appearance. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well until fully incorporated. Add the orange zest, flour and milk and fold in gently with a spatula or large metal spoon. Turn into the prepared tin (I used a loaf pan that was a little big, so it came out pretty flat looking), smooth the top of the mixture and bake in the oven on middle shelf 35 -45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. When cool make little holes in the cake with a skewer, (this is important for pouring the syrup onto the cake to ensure the syrup soaks in fully.)

For The Orange Syrup

Put the orange juice and granulated sugar into a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil for a couple of minutes. Pour over the top of the cake. When all the juice has soaked in, carefully remove the cake from the tin.


For The Topping

Melt the chocolate by placing a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, pour over the top of the cake. Either smooth the top over with a spatula or make a little pattern with the prongs of a fork. Add sprinkles if desired, leave chocolate to set before cutting into the cake.

42 comments:

♥Rosie♥ said...

Arundathi, wow your cake looks gorgeous and I adore those sprinkles. So pleased you enjoyed this bake :0)

Many thanks for partaking in this month's S&SB bake and I hope you will join us in our next bake :0)

Rosie x

Pari Vasisht said...

Hey your cake looks moistand soft,see my cake also.

Parita said...

M drooling over the cake, fantastic, looks so moist!

Sunshinemom said...

Even in these pics the cake looks tempting!

Priya Suresh said...

Delicious!!!

Anonymous said...

simple, lovely and delicious too.

Unknown said...

Love the frosting! Looks too good Anu!

The Girl said...

Looks brilliant!

And I completely agree about the sprinkles, definitely not optional - they're a must!

Chitra said...

looks soft and moist..nice cake!!U r a daring baker!!

Shama Nagarajan said...

wow..what a soft and fluffy cake...yummy

Anonymous said...

Your cake came out a yummy looking treat :)

I didn't have any sprinkles to put on my version :( I loved this cake though so will be making again - lots of sprinkle opportunities in future!

Heatherfeather said...

The last photo really shows off how fluffy yours turned out. I really enjoyed this cake too, it has a nice taste and was very pretty.

Anonymous said...

Looks totally delicious. What are those sprinkles? Little dinosaurs?

Arundathi said...


Rosie - thanks for another wonderful bake! :)

Pari - Your cake looks great too. Thanks.

Parita - Thanks.

Sunshinemom - it was great! the pics are terrible, i know!

Priya - Thanks!!

myspicykitchen - thank you

Divya Vikram - Thanks a lot Divya.

The Girl - Yup - they really added so much to the cake.

Chitra - lol, thanks! i'm trying to be.

Shama Nagarajan - Thanks

Wonk - Next time you've gotta add some sprinkles! :)

Heatherfeather - Yup, it was fluffy, moist and delicious.

applecrumbles - Yes, little dinosaurs and dolphins! lol! My daughter's contribution. I'm amazed you could make it out with those bad photos!

Usha said...

The cake looks soft, fluffy and super delicious, love the orange chocolate combination !

Chaya said...

What do you have on top of your cake besides the sprinkles? The larger pieces are interesting and I like the look they add to the cake. What a great combination of flavors.They seem to be bringing out the best in each other.

Minu said...

hi
came to your site thru B'bay Grill S.wich; and from here to S&SB.
great job. you are my inspiration to try out some of the challenges.
i just love your blog
thanks

The Purple Foodie said...

Heyy! How are you? Haven't seen you around on twitter. I can see you making effective use of some gorgeous sprinkles you brought back from your recent trip! I love the idea of making holes in the cake and then filling it up with syrup - although I'd go all out and use chocolate for that as well. :P Can't tell that you've taken the photos from your phone cam!

Sugar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sugar said...

the cake looks delicious and can't stop eating. i like your sprinkles.

Gale Reeves said...

Your cake looks good with the sprinkles. It also looks whiter than my cake. I imagine that's because of ingredients available in our local areas.

Shefali Tripathi Mehta said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cynthia said...

The topping looks playfully delicious.

Deeba PAB said...

Well done Arundathi...great to see you baking again. Love this flavour combination!

Maria♥ said...

Arundathi, your cake turned beautiful!

Thanks for taking part and hope you will join us again.

Maria
x

Esha said...

Hi: I really like your blog. I also returned to Chennai recently after living in US for 7 years so I could identify with a lot of things you said. I have a question, I am looking for a good oven and I am not too sure about the microwave, grill oven combination. What oven do you use? Thanks. Esha.

Raaga said...

Send some over please :)

Arundathi said...


Usha - Thank you

Chaya - those are dinosaur sprinkles!

Minu - :) thank you - thats very kind.

Shaheen - Thanks but the photos were so bad I thought! Yup, loving the sprinkles!

Sugar - Thanks!

Gale Reeves - Yup I'm sure it is. Loved the cake though.

Cynthia - Thank you! :)

Deeba - I loved it too - and it was just right.

Maria - I loved the cake and will definitely be joining you again.

Esha - I have a Oven Toaster Griller, but would love to buy a regular oven, table top. The range is very limited though and the sizes are incredibly small. Good luck!

Raaga - next time you're over here!

Unknown said...

Delicious...
I really enjoyed this cake too, it has a nice taste and was very pretty.

Sheron

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Arundathi said...


@ Sheron - Thanks. Yes, it was delicious.

Anonymous said...

(У Л Ы Б К А)

Anonymous said...

Как всегда на высоте!

Anonymous said...

Хотелось бы что-то наваять в комментах креативного, но мысль не складывается, так что просто “зачОт”

Anonymous said...

Спасибо. Прочитал с интересом. Блог в избранное занес=)

Anonymous said...

Очень полезная вещь, спасибо!!

Anonymous said...

нет, не всегда. но в этом случае, да.

Anonymous said...

я бы сказал не интересно, а разумно

Anonymous said...

Сколько примет кошмар, замучишься все соблюдать

Anonymous said...

Огромное человеческое спасибочки !

Anonymous said...

А продолжение следует?

Anonymous said...

Отлично написано! Буду много думать…

Anonymous said...

Интересно и позновательно, а будет еще что-то по этой теме?