Torta al cioccolato e arance candite

Another chocolate cake, a sublime one! I started from the idea to experiment more with the puree beets in my dough, I wanted a cake as moist as possible, with soft texture but intense and deep flavour. My goal was to use beets for moist texture, but trying to cover their taste with a strong flavours, like coffee and candied orange. I reached the goal: a super moist cake (without great amount of butter!), with a complex range of flavour. First arrives the coffee, then comes the orange, chocolate combines them wonderfully. And the taste of the beets completely disappeared, you would never guess they are inside. 

Try it and let me know!

Torta al cioccolato e arance candite
Chocolate and candied orange cake
14cm tart tin

For the cake

    • 50gr unsalted butter

    • 80gr dark chocolate (mix with 52% and 70%)

    • Two medium eggs

    • 80gr caster sugar

    • 120gr cooked beetroot 

    • 20gr plain flour (00 type – T405)

    • 25gr cocoa powder

    • half teaspoon baking powder

    • One espresso

    • 30gr coffee grounds

    • Two tablespoons of orange marmelade (for me home made)

Heat the oven to 180°C. Butter the sides and the bottom of the tin cake, then cover the bottom with a small disk of parchment paper. Blend the beetroot in a food processor to a smooth purée. Melt the chocolate with the butter in a small sauce pan, on a low heat. Set aside and allow to cool slightly. Sift the flour, the cocoa powder and the baking powder in a bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale and frothy, add carefully the chocolate mixture and then the beetroot purée. Add the flour mixture and the almond mixture. Whisk the white eggs until are stiff and add carefully in two or three times to the chocolate mixture. Pour two thirds of the chocolate mixture the tin cake, put in the middle the orange marmelade, cover with the rest of the mixture. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes, check it constantly and make sure you do not overcook, otherwise will not moist. Take out from the oven when is cooked, but bit trembling in the middle.

For the candied orange

    • half orange

    • 100gr caster sugar

    • lemon juice

Cut the orange in thin slices (as much thin as you can). In a small sauce pan pour the sugar, the lemon juice and few spoons of water, let the sugar melt and bring it to boil. Add the orange slices and cook it for at least an hour, or until are candied. The peel of orange has to turn transparent and the juice has to become a dense and dark orange syrup. Set in a jar, you can keep it in the fridge until four weeks. 

 For the ganache

    • 125gr dark chocolate

    • 125ml double cream

    • 90gr mascarpone

Chop coarsely the dark chocolate and put in a medium bowl. Pour the double cream in a small sauce pan and bring it to hot temperature. Fold in the bowl with the chocolate, and stir until the ganache is formed. Add the mascarpone and whisk vigorously until perfectly combine: you should now have a soft, creamy and glossy chocolate ganache. 

To assemble. Place the cake or a serving plate. Spread first the ganache generously on the top and then, by helping you with a butter knife or a small spatula, cover evenly the sides. Decorate as you like with the candied orange. Keep in the fridge one hour before serving.