Spicy Chocolate Orange Sponge

So the office is having a bring your Christmas Treats day and the question becomes – what do I bring?  Do you bake something that you have baked before or do you try something new?

Well, what should drift across my online desk but this gorgeous recipe for Spicy Chocolate Orange Sponge from the nice people at Cafe Direct who sourced it from Cake Liberation Front ( brilliant website for those commited to baking without animal ingrediants).

Now I am not vegan so I did adapt the recipe slightly to include organic milk and I also didn't have the right sized tin so went to down the route of a single large round tin!  Lazy, I know but I am having Christmas panic so needed to compromise to ensure my mental health remains relatively steady.

So here is the amended recipe with thanks to the Cake Liberation Front

Ingredients -

200g (8oz) plain flour

50g (2oz)  Drinking Chocolate

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pinch of chili 

1/2 teaspoon salt

350g (12 fl oz) soy or rice milk (I used organic milk instead)

100ml (4 fl oz) sunfl ower oil

6 tablespoons orange marmalade

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

200g (8 oz) caster sugar

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/180 C/Gas Mark 4. 
• Grease and line the bottom of 2 round cake pans (or a single big one in my case with baking powder.
• Sieve the flour, Drinking Chocolate, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt together and mix.  I also added a pinch of chilli as I think it adds a nice zing.

• In a separate bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients.
• Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and stir well.
• Pour the mixture into the tins bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean then leave to cool.  I had to leave it a little longer as my tin was deeper and when I took it out I could see the middle wasnt done enough

Now the Cake Liberation Front suggests creating a glorious orange liquer frosting (See full recipe here) but as it was rather late and I was tired, I stuck to simple chocolate icing with a touch of Christmas Glitter.

Everyone at work loved it and I didnt even manage to get a photo before they dived in!

Definately rolling this one out again

Lxx

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