18Apr 12
by Sarah White
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This yellow layer cake with orange chocolate frosting is a small variation on your typical yellow sponge cake. Â I was getting a bit bored of plain old chocolate or vanilla frosting and decided to get a bit more adventurous. Â Of course, if you prefer, you can just make the sponge and use whatever frosting you prefer, but where’s the fun in that?!
This recipe uses only two layers of sponge cake, but I sometimes use three, depending on your mood. You could also make fun shapes, like in this chocolate orange Valentine’s cake.
Ingredients:
For the sponge:
- 4 eggs, whites separated from yolks
- 225g butter, softened
- 400g granulated sugar
- 240g cake flour
- 2tsp baking powder
- 1/4tsp salt
- 250ml milk
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For the frosting:
- 125g cream cheese
- 315g icing sugar
- 125g cocoa powder
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 3tbsp orange juice
- Grated rind of 1 orange
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Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC.
- Grease and flour two 25cm round cake pans, or line them with baking parchment and set aside.
- In an electric mixer with a wire whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until they are soft but not dry. Set aside.
- With the electric mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and gradually add the granulated sugar, beating until light in colour.
- Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until batter is smooth.
- Carefully fold the flour mixture into the egg whites.
- Â Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Â While the cake is baking, prepare the frosting as follows:
- Mix all the ingredients together by hand or with an electric mixer, setting aside just a pinch of the grated orange rind.
- If the icing is too runny, add a little more icing sugar until the desired consistency is achieved.
- Refrigerate until you’re ready to frost the cake.
- Â Remove the pans from the oven and place on a wire cooling rack for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Â Carefully remove the cakes from the pans and continue to cool on the wire racks. Remove and discard parchment before decorating.
- Â When cool, frost with the orange and chocolate frosting you prepared earlier and sprinkle over the remaining orange rind. Slice and serve.
Prep Time:Â 30 minutes
Cooking Time: Â 30minutes
Serves: Â 10
Difficulty: Â Medium
Desserts / Less than 1 hour —
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