Chocolate - Orange Olive Oil Cake with Mocha Glaze

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Do you want to know what this cake smells like? It smells like victory. Yes, I have won a battle against the cooker-of-evil and baked a cake that is not burned, not raw, not flat and is even up there as one of the best cakes I have ever made. Hah. Take that.

I had bookmarked Meemalee’s Chocolate Olive Oil cake  ages ago and having been given some of B.R.Cohn‘s orange olive oil by the lovely food-testing ladies at BHS, I’ve been pondering the idea of chocolate orange olive oil cake for a while. When I came to look at Meemalee’s recipe again I realised, of course, that I didn’t have eggs or chocolate. Not to be defeated I googled away and came across this recipe. Sometimes the best ones are the ones you stumble across completely out of the blue. This cake is brilliant. It is moist yet just holds its shape. It’s chocolaty but not over-sweet. I’m not sure what it would be like without the hint of zestyness that the oil brought to it, but I’m sure you could add citrus zest instead. I would recommend checking out B.R Cohn‘s range though as they also do Meyer Lemon, Blood Orange and Lime in their range.  They are great for salad dressings too.

I didn’t want a really rich layer cake so I doctored the recipe’s glaze and omitted the cream filling. I think the subtle cake would be overwhelmed if you put thick cream with it.

Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Cake with Mocha Glaze

(cake from Chef Dennis and Diethood)

3 Cups (390g) Plain Flour
2 Cups (400g)  sugar (I used golden caster sugar)
6 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking soda ( I used a sachet of Lievito Pane Degli Angeli which a friend’s mum sent me from Italy)
½ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (180ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I used B R Cohn Orange Olive Oil)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups (475ml) cold water

For the Glaze (this was a make-it-up-as -you-go,  so can easily be adjusted as you go…if you need it more gooey add more syrup if it’s not chocolaty enough add more cocoa or melted choc)
2 tbs golden syrup
2 tbsp strong coffee
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp double cream

Preheat your oven to 350f  / Gas mark 4 / 177c
Put all the  dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt) into your mixer bowl. 
With the mixer on slow, gradually pour in  pour in the all the wet ingredients (oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water) and keep mixing until it’s smooth.
Grease and flour your tin of choice and pour the mix into it. I used a large Bundt ring but the recipe I nicked this from says two 9″ pans as they put cream in the middle. It also makes great individual muffins.
Cook for 35-40mins if in one tin, or 30mins if split in two. It won’t brown much, so test it with a skewer. This is a very moist cake so make sure it’s fully cooled before you try to take it out of the tin

Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Bundt Ring

To make the glaze
Put the strong coffee and  golden syrup into a saucepan
As the syrup becomes more liquidy add the cocoa and mix thoroughly. At this point you can tell if you thing you need more volume of glaze and add more ingredients if necessary.
Bring to the boil.
Take off the heat and stir in the cream to make the glaze glossy. You don’t need the cream, so don’t worry if you don’t have any, it just makes it shiny.

Pour over the cake and decorate with chocolate shavings, candied peel, or whatever you desire.

A slice, with its flavour-maker

I still plan to make Meemalee’s cake, but for the moment I’m going to eat this and savour the sweet sweet smell of victory.

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