Try This Recipe: Mom's Dark Chocolate & Orange Cake

My mother loves to bake, even more than I do. As I've mentioned before, she is a chemist, and baking is chemistry with really tasty results. She also decorates cakes for friends and family. When my oldest cousin got married, Mom made her wedding cake, covered in fondant and Cornelini lace. Learning from her has been one of the best things in my culinary education. If you have a little extra orange buttercream icing, try your hand at making buttercream roses.

This is the cake she made for my 21st birthday. She created this recipe for the Hershey's Cocoa Classic, and got all the way to the Pennsylvania State Fair with it last year, before being railroaded by an anti-citrus judge. Be aware, this cake is very strong in flavor, and quite rich. You could easily get 16 slices from this, and even more if you've got a sharp knife.

For the cake:

6 T butter

6 T margarine

1 3/4 c sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

2 c flour

3/4 c Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

1 1/4 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 1/3 c water

Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans, line bottoms with wax paper, grease paper. Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, margarine and sugar in large mixer bowl. Add eggs and vanilla; beat 1 minute at medium speed. Combine dry ingredients; add alternately with water to creamed mixture. Pour batter into greased pans. Bake for 45 minutes at 350, or until layers test done. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack, removing wax paper immediately, and allow cakes to cool completely.

Orange buttercream icing:

3/4 c butter

1 t orange extract

Zest of 2 medium oranges

3 c powdered sugar

1 1/2 T heavy cream

(optional) food coloring - 2 drops red, 4 yellow

Cream butter, add extract and zest. Gradually add cream and sugar. Add food coloring if desired. Beat on high until smooth and light.

Chocolate fudge frosting:

6 T melted butter

1/2 c Hershey's Special Dark cocoa

2 c powdered sugar

1/4 c heavy cream

1 t vanilla extract

Pour melted butter into mixing bowl; add cocoa, stirring until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

To assemble the cake, level your halves, and torte the layers - cut them in half horizontally, so that now you have four thin layers of cake. Fill between the layers with the orange icing, and use it to make a thin crumb coat on the sides of the cake. This does a couple of things: torting the cake distributes rich orange flavor, and the crumb coat keeps the cut edges of the cake from gunking up the outer layer of your icing with - you guessed it - crumbs. Ice the sides and top of the cake with chocolate icing, and decorate with the remaining orange buttercream. No matter how it looks, this is a showstopper once the first person takes a bite.