Chocolate
One-Bowl Chocolate & Orange Sponge Cake
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16 Reviews
eakesin
December 29, 2020
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it for my birthday and my daughter and husband decorated it. I used orange juice in the cake and a bar of dark chocolate with orange peel in the frosting. It was easy, delicious, and perfect for our low key celebration. I am excited to add this to our birthday dessert repertoire!
Michele K.
February 21, 2020
What's the best way to convert these measurements, since the US ones are different from, well, everywhere else?
sadenis
October 3, 2021
28g per oz only works if you are actually weighing the ingredients. 28g rarely equals 1 fluid oz. It depends on the food item.
Smaug
October 3, 2021
An ounce (weight) is 28g. (at sea level and whatever the standard temperature used, don't really remember). Of course the weight of a fluid ounce depends on what it's an ounce of, but it is 28g. for water and for butter, which can be pretty useful.
sadenis
October 3, 2021
I bake everything by weight now - it gives reproducible results! - buy some newer bakers who come from a measuring cup background don’t realise the weight vs volume differences for ounces in the USA. My comment was for them.
Georgette
October 3, 2021
Kitchen scales are inexpensive and accurate. I’ve like converting to metric when baking as it is more accurate.
Smaug
October 3, 2021
Metric is not more accurate. In theory, a gram is a unit of mass, not weight, which would be a bit more accurate than ounces (which are weight), but in practice unless you're using a balance scale you are measuring weight. Most scale makers calibrate their products more finely in the metric measurements (an eighth of an ounce is a bit more than 3 grams) , but that's a manufacturing decision, not anything intrinsic about the measuring systems. As far as weight being more accurate, sometimes it is (assuming the scale is accurate, which isn't always the case); it's generally easier for light powdery ingredients such as flour or confectioner's sugar which don't want to pack consistently in a cup, but it's far from the panacea that advocates paint it as, and people have been producing excellent results for centuries without.
Miss_Karen
February 7, 2020
Yep. I use Boyajin orange oil as well. It is usually 1/4 tsp. for every 1 tsp. of extract. King Arthur Flour carrys some Boyajin. (Boyajin has their own site w/ recipes & additional products.)
*Not for this recipe, but Boyajin garlic oil is REALLY good....
*Not for this recipe, but Boyajin garlic oil is REALLY good....
gerard G.
February 6, 2020
Not wanting to "rain on anyone's parade", this might be a delicious cake, but it is not a sponge cake recipe or technique. The technique used here is an offshoot of the creamed method. Boyajian Oils are the best, and I use them frequently in my baking in addition to Vanilla extract, especially the lemon oil. I find them more potent and less bitter than the citrus extracts, with a much smoother taste.
snuffcurry
February 17, 2021
Not really. There are gobs of Victoria Sponge recipes (which incorporate a fat, often don’t involve separating eggs for better aeration, and compensate for that with chemical leavening as shown here) that just call for whisking everything together, an old one bowl-method that seemed novel at the time. Does not resemble the sponge of other world cuisines but is often what Anglos in certain nations think of when somebody offers up a layer sponge cake. The photos of this one certainly don’t look like the tender, plush sponge most of us are familiar with.
Smaug
February 4, 2020
Just a plug for orange oil, which is now easily available and is ideal for this sort of recipe- it's much more efficient than extracts, which are relatively low in flavor, and while not an exact substitute for zest does a good job taking it's place.
KR
February 5, 2020
Smaug, I also enjoy flavoured & natural oils in baking... wondering how you would use it in this particular recipe?
Smaug
February 5, 2020
I would definitely substitute for the extract; some extracts will give a percentage of oil; it's been a while, but I think a lot of them run about 15%; I'd try 1/4tsp. in this recipe. Not so sure of the sub ratio for zest, which is difficult to measure anyway and I generally eyeball it, but maybe another 1/4 tsp in this recipe; I'd taste test before baking. I like to use zest when available; the essential flavor is from orange oil, but it distributes it differently, giving tiny "hot spots" of flavor. Citrus oils, by the way, are ph neutral; they are not a source of acidity. I know that Sur la Table carries orange oil, as well as lime and lemon in small bottles (Bosjian brand, which is quite reliable). I also use orange oil as a cleaner and occasional insecticide; I paid about $25 on Amazon for a quart of food grade orange oil (that's really a lot), but I generally use the Bosjian for cooking.
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