When I saw this cake on Anne's blog I was bowled over. I was due to start work at 1pm that day, but I had to make this cake right away. I had an hour and a half before I set off for work and I figured I could just about manage it, so I rushed downstairs to confirm I had all the ingredients. As luck would have it I had everything I needed and so I set to work making the most glorious sponge cake, flavoured with orange and drizzled with chocolate.

Anne's original recipe is here. I'm reproducing it here because I tinkered with it a little as Anne said it would be nice with a little more orange.

Jaffa Drizzle Sponge Cake

Ingredients

140g butter , softened
200g self-raising flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
200g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
6 tbsp milk
finely grated zest 1 large orange
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice from said orange

To Finish

the rest of the freshly squeezed orange juice from aforementioned orange
50g golden caster sugar
50g dark chocolate

Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line the base of a 1.2-litre loaf tin. Put all the cake ingredients into a bowl and beat with a hand whisk or wooden spoon for 3-5 mins, until light and fluffy. Spoon the mix into the tin and level the top.

Bake for 40-50 mins, until golden brown and firm to the touch. Meanwhile, heat the orange juice and sugar gently in a small pan, stirring until dissolved. When the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and spoon over the orange mix. Leave to cool in the tin, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Break up the chocolate and melt over a pan of simmering water Drizzle over the cake and leave to set.

































What can I say about this cake? Well it is marvellous. The smell of orange wafting around the house while it baked was wonderful and it didn't disappoint on tasting either. The sponge was lovely and light and you could really taste the orange, although it wasn't overpowering and all topped off with dark chocolate. It was like a giant jaffa cake. What more could you ask for?

Just in case any of you aren't familiar with jaffa cakes, they are made by McVities and are a british biscuit/cake with a sponge like base, a layer of orange jelly all topped off with a coating of dark chocolate and they are very, very addictive!

My skills at drizzling leave a great deal to be desired. If any of you have any tips on how to drizzle more evenly and delicately I would be very grateful. Oh and you may have noticed I drizzled a little white chocolate on my cake with no more finesse than the dark chocolate.

Well, the cake received rave reviews and I have made it again since. I thought I was being clever the second time I made it and I creamed the butter, eggs and sugar together before adding the other ingredients, but to be honest I think it was a little lighter using the throw-everything-in-at-once technique.

My parents have since put in a request for another one and soon! There only complaint with the last one was that I only gave them half and it didn't last long enough.