All Natural Chocolate Orange Cake With Low Sugar Chocolate Ganache

This is a decadent cake full of intense chocolatey flavour with zesty fresh orange notes. We first made this cake after discovering the original recipe in a Happy Pear cookbook and have since made it our own with the addition of Chicory Root Syrup TO THE CAKE ITSELF TO LOWER THE OVERALL SUGAR CONTENT and ADDING a fudgey chocolate ganache coating everyone loves.

Ingredients:

3 small oranges

6 eggs

200g ground almonds

150g coconut sugar

100g Homespun Chicory Root Syrup

70g cocoa powder (adjust depending on desired richness)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bread soda / bicarbonate of soda

Zest of 2 oranges

1 teaspoon ground ginger

For the ganache:

100g Chicory Root Syrup

2 teaspoons cocoa powder

A squeeze of fresh orange

Method:

Put the three whole oranges into a pan covered with water and boil for 2 hours, ensuring they are submerged in water at all times. Remove them from the water and leave them to cool, before trimming the skins off around half the oranges and leaving the other half approx with the peel still on.

Preheat your oven to 170C. Grease and line a 20cm round non stick springform cake tin with baking parchment.

Blend the cooled boiled oranges into a smooth pulp in a food processor, making sure to remove any pips first. Add the Chicory Root syrup, stirring it in well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and ground almonds together. Then add the orange and chicory syrup mixture to the bowl along with the coconut sugar. Mix thoroughly.

Now sift the cocoa, baking powder and bread soda / bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and mix together lightly. Pour into the orange -chicory - ground almond - egg and coconut mixture (still with me?!) add the orange zest and the teaspoon of ground ginger and stir to combine. You’re almost there!

Pour the cake mix into the prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Leave the cake in the tin for a good 15 minutes before removing so it firms up.

Use the time to make the ganache. Heat 100g of Chicory Root Syrup in a small pan, add 2 teaspoons of cocoa powder and a squeeze of fresh orange. Mix well with a little whisk and let it cool. It will thicken as it cools. Use a pallet knife to lightly coat the cake with the ganache.

Decorate with orange zest and serve as is (no one will complain!) or with plain or coconut yoghurt or even a scoop of ice cream if desired!