Chocolate Orange Cake {Easy Recipe!} (2024)

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Divine layers of moist chocolate sponge cake, sandwiched with chocolate orange buttercream and decorated with chocolate orange segments… It’s not Terry’s, it’s MINE! (But this Chocolate Orange Cake could also be yours with this easy recipe 😉)

Growing up, Terry’s Chocolate Orange always meant that the festive season had really arrived.

There was nothing quite like cracking one of those blue boxes open, and if you got the orange core in the centre? Amazing.

As the years went on, I made it my mission to extend our enjoyment of that amazing confectionery into homemade bakes, which means we get to enjoy the taste sensation for dessert or just as a treat.

(I’ve got cheesecakes, brownies, puddings, you name it – see below for the links.)

Lucky for us, Terry’s Chocolate Oranges are now available all year round, so this Chocolate Orange Cake can be perfect as a celebration cake, birthday cake – or just because it’s Wednesday!

Wouldn’t this be fantastic as an alternative to a traditional Christmas Cake too?

If you want to make a show stopping but easy cake for as part of your Christmas food plans, go ahead!

Why you’ll love this Chocolate Orange Cake recipe

⭐️ Moist and heavenly flavour

⭐️ Looks impressive and a bit special

⭐️ Not too difficult to make

How we came up with this recipe

I created this cake recipe many years ago, and it’s still one of my favourites.

It came about as a way of using leftover Christmas chocolate oranges (leftover chocolate happened?!) And I carried on making it for lots of other occasions.

I knew I wanted it to be simple to make as a basic chocolate orange sponge cake, but with a few additional tweaks and heavenly orange buttercream, plus some pretty decoration and we’re good to go!

More Terry’s Chocolate Orange treats

⭐️ Chocolate Orange Cheesecake {No Bake} ⭐️

⭐️ Slow Cooker Chocolate Orange Pudding ⭐️

⭐️ Chocolate Orange Brownies ⭐️

⭐️ Chocolate Orange Fudge ⭐️

⭐️ Chocolate Orange Rocky Road ⭐️

Chocolate Orange Cake Ingredients

• Butter – Room temperature, unsalted
• Caster sugar
• Eggs – I use free-range medium
• Cocoa – Try use a good quality one
• Self-raising flour
• Melted dark chocolate– This is my favourite brand
• Orange extract – You’ll notice a difference if you use a good quality one like this: Steenberg’s Orange Extract

For the icing

• Butter – Again, room temperature, unsalted
• Icing sugar
• Dark chocolate
• Orange extract

To decorate

• Food colouring – I use this quality one
• Terry’s Chocolate Orange

How to make this Terry’s Chocolate Orange Cake

1. Start by greasing and lining your cake tins well. Next, start to make your cake batter by taking your butter and sugar until fluffy.

2. Add the eggs, cocoa, flour, melted chocolate and orange extract. Spoon evenly between your buttered cake tins.

3. Smooth them out using a spatula or the back of a spoon.

4. Bake until the orange chocolate cakes are just pulling away from the edges of the tin and springy to the touch.

Hint: Smooth them almost to a slight dip in the middle so that when they rise they don’t get a big peak in the middle. You can then trim them slightly to be even when cooled.

Icing the sponge cake

1. When the cakes are cooled, trim off the tops if they do have domes to make them nice and flat and even.
2. Make the chocolate orange buttercream icing by creaming the butter, icing sugar and orange extract.
3. Split the icing into two bowls, add the melted chocolate to one half and the orange gel food colouring to the other.
4. Pipe onto the cake, sandwiching the layers and, of course, decorate with your Terry’s Chocolate Orange pieces!

Top tips

Type of tin to use

As always, it really helps to use good tins for baking. I use and recommend something like these Masterclass 7″ deep round tins, which you can get on Amazon. They are a great investment.

Trimming the cakes

Don’t trim and ice the cakes until they are completely cold otherwise they may break apart.

Piping bags

Disposable piping bags are a must buy if you’re planning on some cake decorating. They are so easy to use. I buy them in bulk from Amazon and you can find them here: Disposable Piping Bag Roll.

I know it’s not ideal to use single use plastic, but I’ve yet to find an alternative for this job that works!

Food colouring

Please ONLY use a good quality gel (or paste as it’s sometimes called) for the orange colouring. The supermarket brands really don’t live up to a professional paste.

I promise, using this will make your life SO much easier as you only need a tiny dot to get the colour you want.

The difference is unbelievable! This is the brand of Tangerine Gel Food Colour I use and recommend.

Butter

Make sure your butter is at room temperature before you start to cream it.

This should ideally be unsalted. Also, use your butter at room temperature, or if it has come straight from the fridge, microwave for a few seconds until slightly softened.

FAQs