Chocolate Sponge with Marmalade, Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Candied Oranges
Curbing jaffa cravings.
My aunty and uncle buy and hoard enormous jars of marmalade, barely scraping the surface of one before bringing home another. I never see them eat it and am perplexed by its presence, plus condiments sitting stagnant make me anxious to find a use for them.
Marmalade, admittedly, has never been my favourite. Jam in general I shrug off, especially the cloyingly sweet, store-bought gunk. And oranges in particular are a fruit I do not eat - the flavour is fine in cakes and bakes, the juice elite, the fresh stuff stringy (right?!)
But after my failed attempt at nailing the light and airy genoise, I wanted to ease off on new techniques and aim instead for simple and tasty. The thought of using anything pre-made made me ick a little, but those multiple jars were taunting me - who else was going to finish them?
My inspiration stemmed from the wonderful @stromabakes - a ceaseless source of sweet ideas and frequently ‘saved’ instagram favourite. I loved the ‘undone’ look of her chocolate orange sponge, with its thick swoops of buttercream and dotting of candied and sugared citrus.
I started with the oranges - we had many languishing in the crisper - simmering slices over a gently boiling pot of sugared water. The house smelt delicious, and the process was felt so straightforward, I told myself to start candying fruit for cake decorating in the future.
The chocolate sponge is by my baking muse, Beatrix Bakes - a faultless recipe, made more than anything else among my regular catalog. Unfortunately my cake tins are 22cm (instead of 20cm), so I feared I over-baked, and planned to deep-soak just in case.
And that soak was made simple with my candied orange syrup - I brushed it liberally on the layers, which absorbed the liquid beautifully. Not wanting to rush the process I had frozen the cakes overnight - was worried the texture would be ruined (fresh is best?) but alas, they were gorgeous.
I have since read that freezing cakes is a moisture-retaining method, used by many professional bakers to keep their butter-cakes soft and squishy. The idea is to wrap the still-warm layers in plastic cling, trapping the steam before it escapes - the freezer then locking in the moisture.
For the filling, I made the Beatrix Bakes creme fraiche chocolate mousse (subbing sour cream), which was smooth-sailing besides the sugar syrup hardening almost immediately. I simply warmed the mixture with the egg yolks over a basin of boiling water and it melted again quite quickly - problem solved, the mousse was delicious.
The buttercream was another Beatrix classic - her Swiss Meringue, with 70g of dark chocolate stirred through at the end. This was nowhere near enough so I added vague spoonfuls of cacao powder until it tasted rich enough.
This recipe uses 400g of butter (which costs almost $10) and tastes very strong of it, but perhaps I need to combine the mixture more? I also wonder whether Swiss Meringue is even for me at all - I might prefer Russian Buttercream, or even Italian, one with yolks.
My presentation, as usual, was very ordinary, but I can appreciate and recognise my gradual improvement. Main issue - overfilling the middle layer with buttercream, which overpowered the delicate mousse and threw off the cake to frosting ratio.
The marmalade I held off on but should have lathered thicker - orange really does both contrast and pair with chocolate beautifully. My candied oranges were cute, maybe slightly chaotic, and I hated the ones I rolled in caster sugar (Too sweet! Too crunchy!)
Final thoughts? An easy win - no groundbreaking flavours profiles and all components I have made multiple times in the past. But it sliced quite nice and went down even nicer - I wanted simple and tasty, and I achieved it. Yay.
All recipe components (besides candied oranges) by Natalie Paull of Beatrix Bakes.
CAKE:
35g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
10g unsalted butter
1 tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
90g egg white + 60g egg yolk (from approximately 3 eggs)
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
80g caster sugar
30g Dutch cocoa, plus extra to dust
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease the base of a round 20cm x 5cm deep cake pan and line with baking paper. Lightly dust the side of the pan with a little cocoa and tap out the excess.
For the sponge, place the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside. Place the butter and milk in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring just to a boil then remove from the heat. Add the vanilla, stir to combine and set aside. Cool slightly.
Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and whisk on high speed for about 3-4 minutes until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, 1 tbs at a time over 3 minutes, to make a very shiny and stiff meringue.
As soon as all the sugar has been incorporated, add the egg yolks to the meringue and whisk on medium-high speed for 5 seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape the foam off the whisk attachment into the bowl. Sift half of the flour mixture over the foam, then fold it in gently with a balloon whisk until well incorporated. Repeat with the remaining flour mix.
Working very quickly, pour the warm butter and milk mixture gently around the edge of the bowl. Fold in with the balloon whisk, until batter is well combined but still fluffy.
Pour batter into prepared cake pan (about 320g of batter) and gently smooth the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the sponge is springy to touch.
Cool in pan on a wire rack for 2-3 minutes, then gently cut around the sides of the cake, flip it out onto the rack and remove the paper. If it steams in the pan, it will toughen. Invert so it is top side up and leave to cool.
CHOCOLATE CREME FRAICHE MOUSSE:
75g crème fraîche (sub sour cream)
75g cream (35-45% milk fat)
50g egg (approximately 2 eggs)
50g egg yolk (from approximately 5 eggs)
50g caster sugar
40ml light corn syrup
100g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa), chopped
1/4 tsp vanilla paste
1/4 tsp sea salt flakes
Put the crème fraîche and cream in the bowl of an electric stand mixer and whip to medium peaks. Scrape the cream mix into another bowl and chill. Without cleaning out the mixer bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks on a high speed for around 5 minutes.
Just after the egg whisking begins, put the sugar and corn syrup into a 20cm-wide saucepan over a medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring with a heatproof spatula.
As soon as the sugar syrup boils, turn the mixer off and quickly scrape the syrup onto the whisked egg. Recommence whisking. Whisk on a high speed for around 5 minutes as it cools.
Meanwhile, fill the empty syrup pan with 5cm water and bring to the boil. Put the chocolate in a 25cm heatproof bowl and place it on the pan. Turn the heat off straight away and allow the chocolate to melt. Whisk in the vanilla and salt.
As soon as the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the heat and cool for 5 minutes. Fold one-third of the egg foam into the chocolate with a small balloon whisk and then fold in the remainder of the foam. Finally, fold in the chilled whipped cream. Chill the mix for around 1 hour until set.
CHOCOLATE SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM:
100g caster sugar
120g egg whites (from approximately 3 eggs)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
400g unsalted butter, softened and diced
1 tsp vanilla paste
100g dark chocolate, melted
Stir sugar and 30ml water in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves, then bring to the boil and cook without stirring until sugar syrup reaches 115C on a sugar thermometer (6-7 minutes).
Meanwhile, whisk eggwhite with cream of tartar in an electric mixer until stiff peaks form (6-8 minutes). Turn the mixer off, add a third of the sugar syrup, then whisk on high speed for 10 seconds. Reduce to medium speed and, while whisking, slowly pour in remaining syrup, whisking until the meringue reaches 35C.
Add butter a little at a time, whisking to incorporate each addition before adding more. Whisk in vanilla, melted chocolate and a decent pinch of salt.
CANDIED ORANGES:
1 large orange
100g caster sugar
100ml water
Cut orange into thin slices.
Bring sugar and water to the boil, then lower to a gentle simmer. Add orange slices and leave for an hour, flipping occasionally.
Preserve orange syrup for cake soak.
MARMALADE:
According to preference. Spread through centre layer.