Thursday, April 28, 2011

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. :)

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

22 comments:

lena said...

yeah, we bake more than we can blog! ah, no worries, you can come up with 2, 3, 4 recipes in one blog but then again, that would take so much time to complete a post especially uploading the photos. That chiffon sounds delicious and choc, orange and hazelnut...mmm..yummy!

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

2 cake treats! The Chocolate Orange sponge cake does look so luscious! Glad that you've got a chance to bake something for yourself :)

CaThY said...

Yummylicious! ;)

My Little Space said...

I am loving both cakes! No worries, just post as many as you like. Or you may just save them up for the next post. It's still best to keep some extra posts standby then nothing. Hope you're going to have a great weekend.
Cheers, Kristy

Ayu said...

the top chocolate orange sponge cake is now in my list!!!!Thank you for sharing..

Wen said...

Both look so good especially the chiffon! I love to try out the chiffon recipe. Thanks for sharing!

ReeseKitchen said...

All so beautiful cakes here, Bee Bee! Hey can see cannot eat la...its very "cham" one larr...haha! I like the banana cream cheese version of chiffon, would like to try out one day. But I know Ben is going to complain for that..he always like pandan ones only(he's very "lou tou" one)...LOL!
See you soon my dear friend..:D

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

You just give me an idea what to bake a birthday cake for my son's Birthday in May, chocolate orange sponge cake , definitely will win his heart! Thanks so much Bee Bee! Have a great weekend and holiday ahead.

Wattie said...

This look great, will try out one day. Tks for sharing the recipe

shaz (Feedingmykidsbetter) said...

The chiffon looks really fluffy and light. Great job!

Anonymous said...

HI

i made the same cake yesterday morning and had it for breakfast today. unlike yours, mine was hard and short and dry:( do u think it is because of the egg size? i used those that weigh about 53g without shell. may i know the size of the eggs you used to make this?
thks
octopusmum

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Lena, I guess we are all the same, heehee. The passion to bake and cook is greater then blogging yah.

Thanks Shirley & Cathy! ;)

Thanks Kristy. You are absolutely right about storing some back up posts. You never know when you need to do a disappearing act sometimes, lol! Have a great weekend!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Wen, hope you like the banana cheese cake chiffon. My family loved it a lot. :)

Thanks Reese. You know I also like pan dan chiffon a lot too. But nowadays getting lazy to blend the pandan leaves, so quite discouraged to bake it, heehee. Oh yes, I'll be seeing you really soon, excited about the whole event!

Sonia, you are most welcome! I'm so glad that you like this combination. It's actually not as heavy in taste as plain chocolate cake, so it's actually quite nice. Looking forward to see your boy's birthday cake post!

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Wattie! Welcome to my blog and thanks for the lovely comment you left. Hope to see you around here again soon.

Thanks shaz!

Hi octopusmum, actually I still dot know which cake are you referring to. Is it e chiffon? I doubt its the size or weight of the eggs causing the cake to deflate. There can be many factor

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Octopusmum, I was saying there may be many factors affecting e cake to deflate. The beating of the egg whites is usuallythe culprit. Always make sure the whites is free from any egg yolk in it, as it will result in the not rising. Another factor is the pan, did you use a proper tube pan and invert it to cool right after baking? And also, over mixing the batter can cause the cake to deflate too. How about your temperature control? Sorry, really hard to debug your problem since there is so many variance involved. Hope you can narrow it Down and find the problem.

Kitchen Corner said...

Oh Bee, I really miss baking and really wish to eat some cakes nowadays. Your Cho orange sponge cake really makes me drooling!

Kristen said...

That chocolate orange layer cake is gorgeous. What a wonderful way to treat yourself!

Angie's Recipes said...

The chocolate covered layered cake looks so delectable.

Anonymous said...

That orange cake looks fantastic!!! What a wonderful cake to bake for a special someone!

Anonymous said...

i am so sorry! i was referring to the orange sponge cake. i forgot that you actually had 2 cakes in this post. really sorry for not being clear...

octopusmum

Jo said...

Looks yummy and I like the way the chocolate is sort of oozing down the sides.

Anonymous said...

Hi, please advise on how to double the Banana chocolate cream cheese chiffon cake, do I have to double all the ingredients including the baking powder? thanks in advance.