This moist, easy to make jaffa cake is laden with quality chocolate flavour and then enclosed in a rich chocolate icing. Perfect for a birthday celebration.

Ingredients

• 200 grams butter diced
• 100 grams unsweetened dark chocolate, chopped
• ½ cup boiling water
• 1 cup soft brown sugar
• ½ cup caster sugar
• ½ cup sour cream
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1½ teaspoons finely grated orange rind
• ¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Rich chocolate icing

• 25 grams butter
• 150 grams unsweetened chocolate
• ½ cup cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• ½ cup icing sugar, sifted

Method

1. Stir the butter, chocolate and boiling water together until all the ingredients are melted. Allow to cool.
2. In a separate bowl or jug, mix together the sugars, sour cream, egg yolks, orange rind and juice. Once well-blended, stir in the cooled chocolate mixture.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the chocolate mix and stir together gently without beating.
4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry and fold into the cake mixture. Spoon the mixture into a well-greased and baking paper-lined 25cm ring tin.
5. Bake at 180ºC for 45-50 minutes or until the edge has pulled away from the sides of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool completely before icing.

Rich chocolate icing

1. Put the butter, chocolate, cream and vanilla essence into a small saucepan and stir over a low heat to melt all the ingredients. Beat until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar.
2. Cool until slightly thickened and spoon evenly over the cake. Decorate with a little melted plain choclate drizzled over the cake if wished.

Cooks Tips

- The flavour of this cake will improve after 1-2 days of keeping so make in advance if you can.