Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake

Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake is an indulgent Bundt cake from Ina Garten. Lush chocolate chunks and whispers of orange are suspended in a buttery cake soaked in orange syrup and then covered in chocolate ganache.

“ At John Street the road angled and became Main Street. Adam stamped the mud off his shoes when he reached the pavement. The buildings cut the wind from him and almost instantly he began to shake with a chill. He increased his speed. Near the end of Main Street he turned into the Abbott House Bar.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

It takes awhile to grasp it’s a new year. The stroke of midnight feels like a party, I need quiet and time for reflection. To come to terms with this crazy world and myself. This is the new year, we let go of the past, gifted another chance to start again. To do our best with this life, be better, do better, to be grateful. Walking our dog Fred in the rain, it was cold, windy and wet. Leaves are still falling from the neighborhood trees. It’s no mystery, all that blowing and swirling, floating to the ground. If you take the time, pause, you can watch them. The leaves don’t wait, when the time is right, they let go. And so it is with baking. Easy, scrumptious, all the components fall together, Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake is a grand way to begin the new year.

There was a gift of oranges and then more a second time. Which is all the best winter has to offer, but I’d had enough of Easy Pickled Beet and Orange Salad. It was time to try a new baking recipe for the new year. Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake was one of the first recipes listed when searching my personal library on the Eat Your Books app for orange and chocolate. (If you have a cookbook collection, Eat Your Books is a fantastic way to organize all the content.) The classic pairing of chocolate and orange make for a seductive Bundt cake in this Ina Garten recipe from her cookbook Barefoot Contessa Parties. If you don’t have the cookbook, the recipe is posted here and here and here. Which like all Ina recipe’s I’ve tried, is outstanding. Lush chocolate chunks and whispers of orange are suspended in a buttery cake soaked in orange syrup and then covered in chocolate ganache, sublime.

Essentials

A few bakers notes on making the Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake. Don’t skimp on the orange zest, this is a big Bundt, use lots. Use the best chocolate, if we’re doing dessert in January it should be exceptional. Take care to throughly butter and then flour the Bundt pan, you will be rewarded with a perfectly shaped cake that easily releases from the pan. To keep the chocolate chunks evenly dispersed throughout the cake remember to toss them flour before adding to the batter. Happy 2018 dear friends!