Home > Chocolate cake recipes > Mary Berry’s very best chocolate and orange cake
By: Mary Berry
- Published:29 Feb 12
- Updated:18 Mar 24
- Test kitchen approved
A classic Mary Berry sponge recipe for chocolate and orange cake. It’s very easy – you can make it in a food processor in minutes.
If you love Mary’s recipes, we’ve also got a rich fruit cake recipe, and a malted chocolate cake. Go discover!
Easy- March 2012
Test kitchen approved
- Serves 8
- Takes 20 minutes to make, 20-25 minutes to cook, plus cooling
A classic Mary Berry sponge recipe for chocolate and orange cake. It’s very easy – you can make it in a food processor in minutes.
If you love Mary’s recipes, we’ve also got a rich fruit cake recipe, and a malted chocolate cake. Go discover!
Nutrition: per serving
- Calories
- 643kcals
- Fat
- 34g (20g saturated)
- Protein
- 8.6g
- Carbohydrates
- 75.6g (60.8g sugars)
- Fibre
- 3g
- Salt
- 0.6g
Advertisem*nt
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 50g good quality cocoa powder
- 90ml boiling water
- 3 large free-range eggs
- 4 tbsp milk
- 175g self-raising flour, sifted
- 1 rounded tsp baking powder, sifted into the flour
- 300g golden caster sugar
- Finely grated zest of 1 orange
For the icing and filling
- 150g Bournville chocolate, broken into small pieces
- 150ml double cream
- 3 tbsp apricot jam
For decoration
- 100g good quality dark chocolate (55-60 per cent cocoa solids) made into curls
Advertisem*nt
Sticky screen? No thanks! Tap to prevent your screen from going off while cooking.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/fan160°C/gas 4. Grease 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking paper. To make the sponges, measure the cocoa and boiling water into a large bowl and mix to a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until combined. (You can use a food processor for this but be careful not to overmix.)
- Divide the sponge mixture evenly between the prepared tins. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes until the sponges are well risen and shrinking away from the sides of the tin. Remove the sponges from the oven, turn out of their tins onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
- For the icing and filling, put the chocolate and cream in a bowl, Then stand over a pan of simmering water for 10 minutes until melted (don’t let the bowl touch the water), stirring from time to time. Set aside to cool until it thickens to a spreadable consistency.
- To finish, spread the tops of both sponges with the apricot jam. Spread the top of one sponge with half the icing and put the other sponge on top. Cover the top of the cake with the remainder of the icing, then, with a small palette knife, make large S shapes in the icing to give a swirl effect. Scatter the top liberally with the chocolate curls (see our how to make chocolate curls video) and enjoy!
Recipe continues after advertising
Advertisem*nt
- Recipe from March 2012 Issue
Nutrition
Nutrition: per serving
- Calories
- 643kcals
- Fat
- 34g (20g saturated)
- Protein
- 8.6g
- Carbohydrates
- 75.6g (60.8g sugars)
- Fibre
- 3g
- Salt
- 0.6g
delicious. tips
Make simple chocolate curls by carefully running a vegetable peeler down the side of a bar of chocolate. Or, melt some chocolate, spread it thinly on a marble work surface or clean, smooth plastic chopping board. When it has cooled and hardened, carefully scrape it up into curls in short steady movements, holding a knife blade parallel to the work surface at 45 degrees.
Or, for a simpler method, make chocolate bark like this:
Buy ingredients online
Related recipe collections
Birthday cake recipesCelebrity chef Christmas recipesCelebrity chef recipesChocolate cake recipesChocolate orange recipesEasy cake recipesOur most popular recipes of 2023Recipes from the stars of The Great British Bake OffSponge cake recipes
Rate & review
Rate
You must be logged in to rate a recipe, click here to login.
Reviews
Share a tip
Or, how about...?
Fudgy, dense chocolate cake meets light and fluffy chocolate mousse...
Vegetarian
- Easy
This is a really easy chocolate cake recipe. Once you’ve...
- Easy
Chetna Makan combines the flavours of pistachio, cardamom and white...
- Easy
Mary Berry’s malted chocolate cake recipe is made with a...
- Easy
More food for thought...
Related collections
More to discover
Subscribe to our magazine
Food stories, skills and tested recipes, straight to your door... Enjoy 5 issues for just £5 with our special introductory offer.
Unleash your inner chef
Looking for inspiration? Receive the latest recipes with our newsletter
