This Halloween cake was an incredibly fun bake. The sponge is one of my favourites, flavoured with chocolate and orange. The sponges have whole oranges in them so are packed full of flavour. In total there are three layers of sponge (two chocolate orange sponges, one pure orange sponge), sandwiched and covered with a chocolate orange ganache and fondant.
I then went a bit crazy with the decorations. I used Wilton black food colouring to paint silhouettes of trees and spooky houses, ghosts and bats around the sides of the cake. On top of the cake, I made a white fondant web and a big black fondant spider.
This was the most elaborate fondant cake, and I was pretty happy with the result. Not perfect by any means, but it was enjoyed :)
Ingredients:
For the chocolate sponges:
- 1 orange
- 250g self-raising flour
- 25g good-quality cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 150g soft light brown sugar
- 125g caster sugar
- 225g margarine (or softened butter)
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the orange sponge:
- 1 orange
- 140g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 140g caster sugar
- 110g margarine (or softened butter)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 50g dark chocolate chips
For the ganache:
- 150g milk chocolate
- 150g 70% dark chocolate
- 150g double cream
- 600ml orange juice (not from concentrate)
For the fondant decorations/to finish:
- 500g dark purple fondant (I bought mine from Hobbycraft)
- 100g black fondant
- 50g white fondant
- Black gel food colouring
- Red gel food colouring
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C(160C fan)/355F/gas 4. Grease two 20cm tins and dust with flour.
2. Place the 2 whole oranges in a small saucepan, cover with boiling water and simmer until soft, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. For the chocolate sponge, cut one of the oranges in half and remove any pips. Process the whole orange, including the skin, until smooth.
4. Cream the margarine with the brown and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, spices and orange pulp and beat until smooth.
5. Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of each sponge comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.
6. Make the orange sponge by cutting the remaining orange in two and blending one half. Cream the margarine with the sugar until light and fluffy, then add the remaining ingredients. Beat until smooth.
7. Pour into one 20cm cake tin, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until springy to the touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Make the ganache by heating the orange juice in a saucepan until it has reduced to 100ml. This will take about 15 minutes.
9. Pour a few inches of water into a saucepan and place a glass bowl on top, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the surface of the water. Chop the chocolate roughly and pour into the bowl with the cream.
10. Heat the water in the pan, stirring the chocolate often. Once melted, take off the heat and set aside to cool slightly. Add the reduced orange juice and stir well. Leave to cool to room temperature then chill for at least one hour.
11. When ready to assemble, take the ganache out of the fridge to come to room temperature. Briefly, whisk (using an electric whisk if you have one).
12. Level the tops of the cake. Place a small amount of ganache on a cake board/serving dish. Place the first chocolate sponge on the cake board. Add a third of the ganache to the top of the sponge, and level.
13. Add the orange sponge, and lightly press down onto the ganache. Add the second third of the ganache and top with the remaining chocolate sponge.
14. Use the remaining ganache to cover the top and sides of the cake. This acts as a crumb coat and tastes brill. Place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to firm up.
15. Roll the purple fondant on a silicon mat (lightly dusted with icing sugar) until it is 2-3mm thick. Carefully transfer on to the cake and gently smooth over. Use fondant smoothers to make the fondant as smooth as possible.
16. To make the web, roll the white fondant out until it is around 3-4mm thick and 15cm wide. Carefully cut out the spider web design with a sharp knife and set aside to dry slightly.
17. Make the black spider by taking a large blob of the black fondant and rolling it into a ball. Stick a smaller sphere of black fondant to the body. Use a fork to ruffle the body up. Use the small ball fondant tool to hollow out some eyes. Place a small ball of white fondant in these hollowed out sections and paint with the red colouring.
18. Use the remaining black fondant to roll out eight legs, about 6cm in length and 1cm in width. Gently bend the legs and dry in this position (I used some bent corrugated card to achieve this). Stick the legs to the body with a little hot water.
19. To finish the cake, place the white web on the top of the cake and top with the spider. Paint trees and houses around the sides of the cake with the black food colouring.
20. Enjoy!
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