Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake

With most recipes that I try out I arrive at the supermarket with my list only to find that they haven’t got exactly what I’m looking for and this one was no exception.  Where the original recipe called for 70% and 54% good quality dark chocolate I could only find the 70%.  The closest I could find for the 54% was Lindt Orange Intense at 47%.  And what a find.

Actually if you couldn’t be bothered baking, get hold of a copy of ‘A Year at Avoca – A Cookbook’ and curl up somewhere with that and the bar of Orange Intense with maybe a coffee for extra meltability and turn to page 56 for the “Mother’s Day Chocolate Cake – with fresh orange zest’ recipe and you’ll come quite close to the real experience.  That was the recipe I used with some minor changes, some might argue major.
My second hurdle was the cake tin size – they recommended a 23cm springform tin and I only have a 20cm one.  I decided to cut back on the quantities as I know the Avoca portions to be huge anyway.
The way they make the cake in the book is a little bit bizarre but I went along with it for as far as I could.  You make up the cake mix without the orange zest and cook two-thirds of it for 35 minutes.  You then add the remaining third of the uncooked cake mix with the orange zest added on top and return it to the oven for a further 15-20 minutes.  Well, my two-thirds rose and rose and the remaining third wasn’t going to fit in the tin so I cooked that separately.  Both of my cakes had a hit of orange from the Lindt Orange Intense bar and the second one had the zest in it.  The jury decided that the first one was better – the one without the zest so here I am leaving it out.
As I’ve only made this cake once you will have to use your own judgement when it comes to the cake tin sizes or cut back my quantities a little if you want to just make one cake.

You will need:
2 * 20cm springform or loose bottomed tins
250g Lindt Orange Intense (47%)
100g Lindt 70% Chocolate
227g unsalted butter (1 small block)
275g light brown muscovado sugar
5 eggs
pinch of salt
4 tsp water
cocoa powder for dusting
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 170C/Gas Mark 5.
Lightly grease the tins and line the base with baking parchment.
Chop the butter into a bowl with the roughly broken up chocolate and melt in the microwave.  (Put on for 30 seconds then mix and continue with microwave for short periods until all is melted)
Meanwhile put the sugar in a saucepan with the 4 tsp of water and bring to the boil stirring continuously.  (Be careful with this syrup if there are kids around)
Add the syrup into the chocolate and butter and mix until smooth with an electric mixer.
Separate the eggs and add the yolks one at a time to the chocolate mixing well.
Place this mixture in bowl the fridge to cool while you whisk up the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are stiff.
Use a metal spoon to gently fold the whisked egg whites into the cooled chocolate mixture.
Pour two-thirds of the mixture into one tin and a third into the other.
(This is where you have to use your own judgement, if you think it will all fit into one tin then go for it, or divide it evenly if you want to.
The way I did it I ended up with one big and one small cake and next time I’ll reduce quantities further to just make one.)
Bake the bigger cake for 35 -40 minutes and the smaller one for 25-30.
The outside will from a light crust but the inside will be deliciously moist.
Leave the cake to cool completely before you release it from the tin.
Decorate with a dusting of cocoa powder.
Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila