Chocolate Orange Traybake Cake

Chocolate orange cake with a chocolate orange buttercream. An easy chocolate orange sheet cake that's great for parties, bake sales and feeding a crowd!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Cake

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 25

Total Time 1 10

Servings

Calories 538kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the cake

225 g Butter or baking spread unsalted, softened
225 g Caster sugar
4 Eggs large
75 ml Milk
2 tsp Orange extract
175 g Self raising flour
50 g Cocoa powder
¼ tsp Baking powder

For the buttercream

200 g Butter unsalted, softened
350 g Icing sugar
50 g Cocoa powder
2 tsp Orange extract
2-3 tbsp Milk

For decoration

12 Chocolate orange segments
Zest of half an orange

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Pre-heat your oven to 160C Fan/180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, and grease and line a 12" x 9" traybake tin
Make the sponge by mixing the butter and caster sugar in a large bowl until fluffy, ideally using an electric mixer
Add the eggs, orange extract and milk, and whisk until fully incorporated
Gently whisk in the self raising flour, cocoa powder and baking powder, and whisk in until you can't see any flour anymore
Pour the mixture into the tin, smooth it out of needed to spread it out evenly
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool fully either in the tin or on a cooling rack
To make the buttercream, use an electric mixer to mix together the butter, cocoa powder and icing sugar until they start to combine, then add the orange extract and milk and mix until smooth. You can add more milk if the buttercream is too stiff
Spread or pipe the buttercream all over the cake
Decorate with the orange zest and chocolate orange pieces
To serve, slice into squares. Store any leftovers in an airtight container in a cool place and eat within 3 days

Video

Notes

Make sure all your ingredients (particularly the butter and eggs) are at room temperature before you start baking.
I used a baking spread for the cake and unsalted butter for the buttercream.
For the best flavour, make sure to use a good quality orange extract and not an essence. If you can't get hold of orange extract, you can use the zest of two oranges in the sponge. You can't replace it with anything in the buttercream unfortunately, orange juice is not strong enough to get orange flavour in the buttercream, you would have to use a lot and it could make the buttercream sloppy. What I would suggest instead is mixing 100g melted chocolate orange into the buttercream, then adding 1 - 2 tbsp milk to loosen it if it's too thick.
You will need a 12" x 9" traybake tin for this recipe. However, if you want to make it in a 9" square tin, check the recipe notes for the details.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50).
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.

If you want to make this cake in a 9"square tin, here are the measurements:

150g Butter
150g Caster sugar
3 Eggs, large
50ml Milk
1 ½ tsp Orange extract
115g Self raising flour
33g Cocoa powder
¼ tsp Baking powder (scant)

Nutrition