Category: Christmas

It’s nearly the most wonderful time of the year! Here is a suitably festive bake for the season. This cake has three layers of spiced orange sponge, filled with orange buttercream and spiced orange curd, covered with more buttercream and finally topped with a dark chocolate drip.

Spiced Orange Sponge

• 290g self-raising flour
• 265g Stork (at room temperature)
• 265g caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• zest of 2 oranges

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven). Grease three sandwich tins  (diameter 8 inches) with butter then dust with flour.

Cream together the Stork and the sugar until it is light and fluffy. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ground cloves into a separate bowl then add the grated nutmeg.

Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed Stork and sugar. With each egg add a tablespoon of flour and beat well until fully incorporated. When all the eggs have been added, fold in the remaining flour mixture. Finally, fold in the orange zest.

Split the batter evenly between the three tins, level the tops with a spatula then place in the oven to bake for about 20 – 25 minutes. The cakes should be risen and golden. Test with a skewer to confirm the cakes are done. Once done, turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

Spiced Orange Curd

I used a recipe by Mary Berry For the Orange curd. You can find the recipe here. Mary’s recipe is for lemon curd and uses 10 eggs. I halved the recipe and substituted the lemon juice and zest for the zest and juice of two oranges. I then added a cinnamon stick, about five whole cloves and a star anise into the saucepan with the the egg yolks, sugar and juice so that the flavours infuse as the mixture cooks. Cook as per Mary’s instructions. When the curd is ready, pour through a sieve into a bowl and leave to cool.

Orange Swiss Meringue Buttercream

• 5 egg whites
• 250g caster sugar
• 250g unsalted butter (cubed and at room temperature)
• 6 tbsp spiced orange curd

Pour the egg whites and the sugar into a heatproof bowl, then place on top of a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). Whisk the egg whites and sugar together over the water. Using a sugar thermometer, check the temperature of the mixture. Keep whisking until the meringue reaches 70°C.

Then pour the meringue into a stand mixer and whisk on high until the meringue has cooled down and reached stiff peak stage (this can take 5-10 minutes). At this stage, put the mixer on a slow speed and add the butter, one cube at a time. After adding all the butter the mixture may look curdled but keep whisking slowly and it will come back together. Once it has turned in to a light buttercream, add the orange curd and stir in.

To assemble the cake, place the first sponge on a cake stand and cover with buttercream. Pipe a circle of buttercream around the edge of the cake and fill the centre with curd (the buttercream circle helps keep the curd inside the cake). Repeat with the second sponge. Finally, place the third sponge on top and cover the whole cake with buttercream. Smooth the sides and leave to set.

I decorated my cake with a dark chocolate drip, physalis, dried oranges and chopped pistachios. Yum Yum!

As I’m not a fan of dried fruit, I wanted to make an alternative Christmas cake so here is a festive gingerbread style cake. This cake has three layers of gingerbread sponge, covered with a ginger Swiss meringue buttercream, topped off with dark chocolate and stem ginger chocolate shards.

For the chocolate shards

• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 bulbs of stem ginger, chopped

Melt the chocolate over a bain marie, then pour on to a sheet of baking paper on a tray. Drop the stem ginger randomly over the chocolate and leave to set. Break into shards once the chocolate has set.

For the Gingerbread Sponge

• 300g self raising flour
• 265g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 265g dark muscovado sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• pinch of grated nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan oven). Grease three sandwich tins  (diameter 8 inches) with butter then dust with flour.

Cream together the butter and the sugar until it is light and fluffy. Sift the flour, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon into a separate bowl then add the grated nutmeg.

Add the eggs one at a time to the creamed butter and sugar. With each egg add a tablespoon of flour mix and beat well until fully incorporated. With the last egg, add the golden syrup and beat. When all the eggs have been added, fold in the remaining flour mixture.

Split the batter evenly between the three tins, level the tops with a spatula then place in the oven to bake for about 20 – 25 minutes. The cakes should be risen and golden. Test with a skewer or cocktail stick to confirm the cakes are done. Once done, turn out on to a wire rack to cool.

For the Ginger Buttercream

• 6 egg whites
• 300g caster sugar
• 300g unsalted butter (cubed and at room temperature)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• zest of half an orange

Pour the egg whites and the sugar in to a heat proof bowl, then place on top of a saucepan of simmering water (don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). Whisk the egg whites and sugar together over the water. Using a sugar thermometer, check the temperature of the mixture. Keep whisking until the meringue reaches 70°C.

Once the meringue has reached 70°C, pour the meringue into a stand mixture and whisk on high until it has cooled down and reached stiff peak stage (this can take 5-10 minutes). Reduce the speed to the lowest setting and add a cube of butter. Whisk slowly until the butter has been fully incorporated, then add the next cube of butter. Continue slowly mixing until all the butter has been added. Once it has turned in to a light buttercream, add the ginger and orange zest and stir in.

To assemble the cake, smooth the buttercream between each layer of cake and then cover the top and sides with the buttercream. Decorate the top with the chocolate shards. I added crumbled up gingerbread biscuits, cinnamon sticks, star anise and orange peel to finish.