Orange Chocolate Swirl Cakes (w/thanks to Josephmark)

If you haven’t tasted any Chinese or Hong Kong cuisine, you might be as curious as those staff at Josephmark, a leading creative design company in Brisbane. Last Wednesday was my big day. On that day I felt myself like a “food ambassador” from Hong Kong, cooked a 3-course lunch for Josephmark staff. Apart from the downside, as all my kitchen pots are not big enough to cook for the whole company, only catered for a bunch of people who were curious enough to taste the authentic Hong Kong foods. I was totally thrilled by their positive responses. I pan-fried my homemade dumplings in their newly renovated kitchen, cooked a full pot of beef brisket stew going with steamed rice, indulging them with creamy mango puddings to end their lunch.

Too bad, I forgot to take photos of each dish on that day because I was too busy with cooking and chatting. Luckily, I was reminded that a few photos of the whole group should be taken as souvenir at the end.

The next day, I found this humble lunch was mentioned in Josephmark’s newsletter. Hey, you guys at Josephmark are very efficient and awesome! The line, “Ho so tasty” caught my eyes instantly and I was thrilled by their likings.

It took me by surprise that I got a thank-you card with a lovely gift the next day. My heart was so touched when reading the words in the card. Having unwrapped their gift, I found two beautiful silicon moulds that I spotted in a kitchenware shop and have been juggling whether to buy them or not for a while.

Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to use them, then baked some buttery orange chocolate swirl cakes twice before I wrote this post.

Orange Chocolate Swirl Cakes (Inspired by goodtoknow.co.uk) (Printable recipe)

I used two 11.5cm x 5cm round silicon moulds. (You might use a rectangular baking pan instead.)

Ingredients:

• 100gm unsalted butter, room temperature until softened
• 100gm caster sugar,
• 100gm self-raising flour, sifted
• 2 eggs, lightly whisked
• 3 tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp finely grated orange zest (only orange part)

Ingredients of chocolate swirl:

• 25gm dark chocolate (with 70% cocoa preferable)
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C (335F).
2. Place chocolate, sugar and milk in a small bowl. Place the small bowl on top of a pot filled with some simmering water and heat over low heat until chocolate melts, sugar dissolves completely. Stir to combine well. Set aside.
3. Place butter, sugar, flour, eggs, orange juice, orange zest in a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes until pale and creamy. Make sure not to over-beat anyway. The cake won’t be soft otherwise.
4. Spoon the batter mixture and fill the base of the moulds. Don’t need to level the surface because you want to get some patterns more interesting. Randomly drizzle the chocolate mixture over the top. Then spoon the rest of the batter mixture on top. Use a spoon or knife to draw through the mixture to create interesting effects if you like. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Test with an inserted needle that comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the moulds for 5 minutes. Turn out and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Note:

• You might like to use milk chocolate for convenience. Use the same method mentioned above or a microwave oven to melt chocolate solids.