It’s Halloween night and I’m winding down after a scary movie session. I made chocolate orange cake to celebrate since it’s black and orange. I’ve been feeling under the weather, but after a sunny, breezy walk today and time with family, I’m feeling back to myself. I just watched Sinners and my head is spinning. What a fantastic, fascinating movie. I’m thinking a lot about culture and the importance of preserving it. I’m excited and energized by the idea of passing down my recipes. The stories behind them. And the people.

Chocolate Orange Cake + Halloween

This week was boring, for the most part, with the exception of a trip to South Portland for my mom’s medical appointment. She has routine shots in her knees which are very painful but helpful for her longevity. As someone with chronic pain who is a workout fanatic. I held her hand during the injections and watched the doctor do his thing. A gentle reminder that I picked the right career path – I don’t have the chops to be a doctor of any sort. We stopped at our favorite dim sum spot on the way home for our beloved roasted pork bao.

Tragically, they didn’t have any. And we learned that the place is closing for good. Owned by the same chef who created the delicious Asian fusion restaurant I frequented in college. I had just come back from Asia when I heard about it. I ate miso roasted corn, Vietnamese Bánh xèo, Sichuan peppercorn speckled wax beans, and roasted pork buns. Steamed bao that elegantly came to the table in a bamboo steamer basket. Little paper wrappers still on the bottom.

The End of A Restaurant

One of my favorite memories in Asia was eating pork buns on a park bench with my friend Hayley. She led us right to them, as if she was a regular. We got a bunch of the hot snowball-looking things in a paper bag and ate them in front of the water on a park bench. I took bites on the way and completely fell in love with them. I ordered them every time I could in Vietnam. We even found some outside of a bus stop once that I raced to buy during a short bathroom break. They were raw on the inside, but it didn’t ruin my love for them.

Anyway, when I came home, we went to the new Asian restaurant in my college town, and it took me right back to my trip. I went again on my birthday with my friends and couldn’t wait to show them my favorite dish. As if I could somehow bring them to Asia with me. My best friend fell in love with them too, and years later when he visited me I tried to buy them for us to enjoy. They only had a sit-down restaurant at the time and they didn’t offer takeout. I dreamed of one day buying them hot and fresh and to-go and vowed to be a top customer.

Sinners and Preserving Recipes

After the pandemic, the owner opened a little cafe spot in my same college town. About 45 minutes from home. So whenever I drive by, I stop in to buy pork buns. We get 12 or 18 at a time and I re-steam them at home. We dip them in hot sauce, or duck sauce from our local Chinese spot. Last year we had them for Christmas dinner. So needless to say, when we found out they were closing, we were devastated. I’ve tried to make them before, but one of my life goals now is to recreate the recipe perfectly. So my friends and family can taste them again, and in turn, be a part of that trip to Asia with me once again.

Now it’s Halloween night and I just enjoyed a big slice of my chocolate orange cake with the movie Sinners. The movie is all about preserving culture, despite evil trying to eradicate the joy and beauty of community, song, dance, and food. There are vampires and a little bit of magic, so I was saving it to watch on Halloween. And I absolutely loved it. Amongst other things, my main takeaway was the importance of passing down traditions and culture. The main form of culture in my family, of course, has been food. Recipes. Holiday traditions. Pork buns.

Orange-Packed Chocolate Cake

It makes me happy to think of this blog as a form of preserving my life. My stories. The stories of my loved ones. Through our favorite recipes and new recipes that I make from my own creativity and imagination. This week my idea was simply to make something black and orange. A little nod to Halloween. And after our trip to a bakery last week, I felt inspired to replicate the chocolate orange cake we tried. It was a Greek chocolate cake, soaked in orange syrup. Topped with chocolate frosting.

Unfortunately I didn’t taste much orange. So I thought back to my favorite chocolate orange brown butter cookies that I accidentally created a couple Christmases ago. I used Terry’s chocolate oranges instead of chocolate chips and they turned out phenomenal. So I couldn’t help but crave an orange-packed dark chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate frosting. An orange slice on top for color. Black cocoa in the batter for an extra dark color. The perfect Halloween recipe.

Black Cocoa Brown Butter Cake

Ironically my mom came home with a bag of oranges the other day. So I took it as a sign. I couldn’t wait to make my own chocolate orange cake and started early this week. I decided to revisit my double chocolate cake, the one that I created to celebrate the advent of my favorite tv show this spring. It’s an over-the-top, luscious chocolate cake with many layers. But I’m much more of a cake person than a frosting person. I decided to replicate the same cake batter with brown butter and black cocoa, but I would add lots of orange zest to the sugar to infuse flavor.

I also wanted to bake something simple. Not stack a layered masterpiece, but to have a humble sheet cake with a quick frosting on top. I’ve been battling my perfectionism a lot lately, and my anxiety has been worse. So this was me practicing giving myself a break. Which turned out to be a great help when I got sick. I started this recipe by reading over my chocolate cake recipe. To make it a chocolate orange cake, I started by massaging orange zest into white sugar. I’d like to say I created the technique, but I got the idea from many creative social media cooking videos.

Sugar and Orange Zest

The idea is to impart all the oils from the orange zest into the sugar so it flavors the batter. I planned to soak the cake with orange syrup like the Greek cake at the bakery. I started with melting brown butter in a big sauté pan. Once it cooled, I added my sugar, some vanilla, and my black cocoa powder. I read years ago that “blooming” cocoa powder releases all of its flavor. Usually you mix it with hot water, not hot butter, but why not? It bubbled and swirled into a black Halloween potion and I measured my other ingredients.

I sifted all the dry ingredients together and slowly added the rest of my wet ingredients to the butter, starting with the eggs. Then I alternated adding my buttermilk, coffee, and oil mixture to the cake batter with the dry ingredients. This is something I do for gingerbread with hot molasses water and flour, and it’s a magical process. The batter becomes thick and cookie-like, then thins out and becomes velvety and loose, then back to thick, back to thin, and finally turns into a perfectly velvety cake batter.

Whipped Chocolate Ganache Frosting

It smelled heavenly. Of cocoa, brown butter, and orange. I couldn’t wait to bake it. I spread the dark brown batter into my favorite square pan, lined with parchment paper, and let it cook until it felt done. A sixth sense I’ve developed after many years of baking. I usually set a timer to count up so when it’s done I right down how long it took. And because of my ADHD it’s not uncommon to come back the next day and realize I forgot to turn the timer off. This time it was 9 hours and 24 minutes before I remembered. But my cake turned out fantastic, springy, and moist. I let it cool for a little bit and drizzled it with an orange syrup that I improvised with fresh oranges, bottled orange juice, a little water, and a little sugar.

I’m not including it in the recipe because the frosting and the zest in the cake packed enough of an orange punch. The syrup settled to the bottom and made it a little too sharp for my liking. So, do I as I say, not as I do. The cake is moist enough anyway. I moved on to my frosting next, which is my favorite kind of frosting to make. Whipped chocolate ganache. I knew I wanted my chocolate orange cake to have that signature melted chocolate orange taste on top, so I knew a ganache was the easiest and tastiest way to achieve it.

A Simple Cake with Big Flavor

You could use chocolate oranges if you want, but I simply used broken up chocolate bars and the zest of 2 oranges. I didn’t skimp on the zest. All you have to do is cook heavy cream, pour it on top, and whisk it up into a luscious chocolate sauce. Then you let it cool and whip it from a pudding-like thing into a thick, glossy, spreadable frosting. It’s so easy to make and because it doesn’t have butter or icing or egg whites, like other buttercreams. It tastes purely of chocolate. Mine tasted strongly of orange, too, which is a great thing, but I was a little bit worried about it. What if the cake was sharp, too? I wanted balance.

Thankfully after a satisfying spread of chocolate frosting on top of my simple square cake, I cut off a little slice and gave it a taste. The cake didn’t have as much orange as I expected. So the frosting was perfect. Eaten together it tasted like a delicious chocolate orange mousse with a moist dark cocoa-flavored cake. It’s a thick cake base, which I love – it needs to be substantial to stand up to the rich frosting. All that was left to do was photograph my cake and let it chill for a couple days until Halloween.

Cancelled Plans + Halloween

Good thing I baked it early. Because on Thursday I fell ill. Out of nowhere. When I went to bed I ended up lying on the bathroom floor for a good half hour just to fight off hot flashes and dizziness from whatever was going on. I ended up falling asleep in a weird fetal position in bed and felt better when I woke up. I took a hot shower and ate toast to calm my stomach. It was rainy and cold and damp – perfect for Halloween. But as the day went on, the sun came out. And I felt much better. Just in time to enjoy my chocolate orange cake for Halloween.

We planned to go for a drive – pumpkin picking and fried food for lunch. But I opted to nap instead. I made pizza for dinner in the crisp Halloween air, fighting off huge gusts of wind that nearly knocked me and my oven off the porch. Finally I sat down, enjoyed my food, and watched Sinners. With a slice of my chocolate orange cake. I could write a whole essay about Sinners, but it was just pure perfection. So much symbolism and an unexpected Michael B. Jordan twin twist that didn’t feel cliche. The main takeaway, as I mentioned, was the importance of preserving culture. And having garlic on hand for vampire attacks.

Family Recipes + Culture

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about what parts of my culture I want to pass on one day. What I want to preserve. And for me the most important thing is these recipes. I get down on myself sometimes, thinking no one is reading this. That no one cares. Or that my efforts are pointless. But I’m smiling thinking about how proud I am to have documented hundreds of my recipes and stories now. I’ve written about my family and friends, mundane days in Maine, and my trials and tribulations with cooking and baking. I’m so glad that these posts will be forever available for people to find and read.

My next goal will be preserving that pork bun recipe. Or making my own version of it, out of sheer appreciation. I can get close, hopefully, but never perfect. Perhaps that’s the beauty of culture. It’s like a game of telephone. Our stories and songs and recipes will be passed down, but they’ll always be a little different. A dash of salt may suit my palate more. My children may eat a different pork bun one day, but it’ll always remind me of mine. My time in Asia. And hopefully my stories and memories will survive with them.

On we go, despite sickness, losing beloved restaurants, and another Halloween in the books. I’m grateful for it all. And so excited to keep going. To create and share. Thank you for reading! Be sure to check out my prints and recipe cards on Etsy. Use code THEFORKEDRING for 25% off. Until next time.

Print Pin

Chocolate Orange Cake

Black cocoa cake infused with orange with a dark chocolate and orange whipped ganache

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate cake, chocolate orange, orange

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 9

Author theforkedring

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup black cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup white sugar
• Zest of 4 oranges
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup strong coffee
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 8-10 oz 72% dark chocolate
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Instructions

• Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat for 5-10 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove from heat and add 1/4 cup black cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Stir to combine and let cool. Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In a medium bowl, combine white sugar and the zest of 2 oranges. Massage together with your fingers until you have a fragrant, orange-colored sugar.
• Add your orange sugar to the melted brown butter mixture and stir to combine. Then, add your eggs, one at a time, until mixed.
• In a large bowl, sift together AP flour, 1/4 cup black cocoa powder, kosher salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
• In another medium bowl or pyrex cup, whisk together buttermilk, coffee, and vegetable oil.
• Alternate adding your dry ingredients and coffee milk mixture to the butter batter, starting and ending with your flour mixture. Fold the last batch of flour into the batter with a spatula until just combined.
• Grease and line a 9 x 9 square baking pan with parchment paper. Pour in your cake batter and bake for 30 – 35 minutes until the top springs back.
• To make frosting, chop your chocolate and add to a heat-proof bowl. Add the zest of 2 oranges and set aside.
• In a medium stock pot, heat your heavy cream over medium-high heat until scalding and starting to bubble. Pour over your chocolate and orange zest and let sit for 1 minute to melt.
• Whisk your ganache into a silky smooth, glossy mixture. If there are chunks of unmelted chocolate, place back in the stock pot and melt over medium heat until homogenous.
• Let your ganache cool for 30 – 60 minutes in the fridge until barely firm and cool to the touch. Whip the ganache with a hand mixer for 30 seconds until fluffy and paler in color.
• Spread your frosting over your cooled chocolate cake with an offset spatula. Slice into 9 equal squares and top each with a half slice of fresh orange.

Notes

• If you want to bake this cake over two days, bake your chocolate cake first and wrap it in plastic wrap while slightly warm. Keep at room temperature for up to 12 hours and frost. 
• You can replicate this recipe with lime zest or lemon zest if you prefer a chocolate-lime or chocolate-lemon combination. If you use lemon, cut the amount of zest in half. 
• If you use dark chocolate in your frosting that’s too dark for you, add a little powdered sugar when you whip it to increase the sweetness.