chocolate-orange birthday-boy cake

This is kind of a cross between decadent fudgy-fudge and a proper spongy cake - and it has a completely different texture when it's warm than it does after it's been in the fridge and gotten extra moist and dense. I've been making this easy recipe since 2002 and I honestly couldn't tell you how many times we've eaten it! It comes from Nigella Lawson's How To Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.

All you need is a springform pan, some dark chocolate, orange marmalade, and a few staple cakey fixins, and just look at that yummy batter!

Stephen asks for this all the time, and even though I made it again for him for his birthday a few days ago, it never gets old around here.


You'll need:

1/2 c. (100 g) butter (I use salted - doesn't really matter)
4 oz. (114 g - I use two bars of Meiji Black) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 1/3 c. orange marmalade
1/2 c. sugar
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1 c. self-rising cake flour (I use Japanese "soft" flour and it seems to work just dandy)
8-inch (20-cm) springform pan, buttered and floured

Do this:

Preheat your oven to 350 F/175 C. Put the chopped-up butter in a pan on low to melt, and when it's pretty much all melted, add the chocolate. Stir for a second or two, then take the pan off the heat and stir it all up till it's gooey and smooth. Stir in the marmalade, salt, sugar, and eggs, then beat in the flour bit by bit. (The recipe doesn't call for this, but at this stage of the game, this last time I made the cake, I stirred in about 1/2 c. unmelted 60% cacao chips - added a lovely new dimension of melty choccy pockets after it was baked.) Pour into the pan and bake for about 50 minutes (start checking after 45). Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before taking it out. I like to dust confectioner's sugar over ours for a little bit of a snowy effect.

Eat it warm or cold, and your taste buds will throw a party in your honor. Doesn't even have to be your birthday.