Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake & Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon

There are quite a number of backlogs that I have not got a chance to post up for the past few months. And it seems to be stacking up steadily as the days goes on. I can say I'm usually a fast baker, but now due to time constraint, I've become such a slow blogger. *sigh* So today I'm going to "kill 2 bids with one stone", 2 recipes in one post. :) Don't be surprise if eventually I'm posting up 3 in 1 in the future, lol! So please bare with my long post today. :P

First up is Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake. Made it because I was craving for a cake, not just a simple sponge or butter cake, I want with layers and icing and of course with chocolate!

It's be ages since I last made myself a luscious yummy cake...just for myself not for someone's birthday, heehee. I got the primary idea from Hearty Bake's Orange Sponge Cake post a while back. I was totally captivated by the sponge cake and swore to try it out myself. The outcome was great of course(thanks for the recipe Jessie!) but I did made some minor changes to it to suit my taste. :) Here is my version:

Ingredients for Chocolate Orange Sponge Cake: (makes a 6"X3" round)

4 egg yolks

30g sugar

1/2 tsp orange essence

75ml freshly squeezed orange juice

Zest of 1 naval orange

40g cake flour

40g plain flour

50g melted butter

4 egg whites

90g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

• Sieve the flours twice and set aside. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 6"X3" round pan with removable base.
• Place the egg yolks and sugar over a heat proof bowl over a double boiler on a gentle simmer. Using a hand beater, whisk the mixture till foamy. Then add the juice and zest and continue to whisk till ribbon stage. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for later use.
• In another bowl, beat the egg white and cream of tartar together till foamy. Gradually add in the caster sugar while the beater whisk at high speed. When it reaches stiff peaks, stop the mixer.
• In 3 separate portions, fold the whites into the yolk mixture till all is combined.
• Also in 3 separate portions, sieve the flour mixture into the egg mixture and gently fold in till all the flours are not visible.
• Lastly add in the cooled melted butter and fold in gently and careful not to deflate the batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan and give it a light tap on the table to remove some bubbles.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or till golden brown and tester comes out clean.

Toppings and filling:

200ml of non-dairy whipping cream,
15ml freshly squeezed orange juice
Nutella for spreading between cake layers
200ml semisweet chocolate, chopped small (I used Valrohna)
100ml dairy heavy cream
20g of butter


Assembly:

• In a mixer, whip the non dairy cream with orange juice till stiff peaks. Note that if your whipping cream is unsweetened, you can add some confectioner's sugar to your liking.
• Slice the cooled cake horizontally into 3 layers. Then spread a layer of nutella on one of the disc. Top it off with some orange whipped cream and cap it with the next cake disc. Repeat till you place the last disc on top. Ice the whole cake with the remaining orange whipped cream and let it chill for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, heat the dairy heavy cream till almost bubbly, then add in the chopped chocolate and butter in. Let it stand for 5 minutes. After 5mins, stir the mixture till soon.
• Pour the chocolate mixture over the cake and let it naturally flow down on the sides. Chill the cake for an hour before serving.

I was very pleased with the end result. The sponge cake was soft with an evident orange scent. Plus the orange and chocolate flavor comes together perfectly. With the hazelnut spread, it gives another hint of nutty flavor at the back, pretty nice I must say. :)

This cake was pretty easy to whip up. Definitely can be made into a nice birthday cake for your love ones. Perhaps I will do that the next time. :) Feel free to substitute the hazelnut spread to just plain chocolate if nuts is not an option. :)

Next recipe is an all original HoneyBeeSweets creation, Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake! Heehee, it's very nice I can tell you that, so no worries if you decided to give my recipe a try. ;)

This chiffon is soft and creamy with a nice banana and chocolate flavor. I actually made this twice already since my kids loved it so much. ;) So here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Banana Chocolate Cream Cheese Chiffon Cake: (makes a 22cm to 24cm chiffon)

Egg Yolk mixture:

4 egg yolks

70g caster sugar

80g ripe bananas

80g cream cheese (room temperature)

60ml fresh milk

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

70g vegetable oil

75g cake flour

75g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Egg white mixture:

5 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

80g caster sugar

100g semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 55% cocoa Valrohna)

(Note: Try not to use chocolate chips as it might just sink all the way to the bottom)

Method:

• In a blender, add in cream cheese, banana, fresh lemon juice and milk. Blend the mixture till smooth. Then pour the mixture into a large bowl, add egg yolks and vegetable oil and mix well.
• Sieve the 2 flours and baking powder into the egg yolk mixture and stir well till smooth.
• Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar till foamy, then gradually add in the caster sugar with the beater on at high speed. Beat till stiff peaks.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• In 3 separate portions, fold in the whites to the yolk mixture but not over mixing and deflating the batter.
• Lastly stir in the finely chopped chocolate chunks into the cake batter. Then pour the batter into the tube pan and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the tester comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and invert the cake to cool completely before removing from the pan.

I was glad this experiment turned out well. Perhaps next time I will try out with more interesting flavors, heehee. :D Maybe substitute the cream cheese with sour cream or yoghurt perhaps? We'll see. :)

BTW, I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #6: Say Cheese! (April 2011) hosted by Jean from Noms I Must.

Okay folks, hope you all have a nice long weekend and Happy Labor Day!