Chocolate-Orange Cake - flour

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).
• Lightly grease an 8" round baking pan.
• In a bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder.
• In another bowl, cream together the oil, sugar and yogurt.
• Add the juice, orange zest and flour; mix well and pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake for about 35 minutes or till the cake tests done; let it remain in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire cooling rack.
• When the cake is completely cool, split it in half horizontally.
• To make the filling, put the sultanas, orange juice and apricot brandy in a small microwaveable bowl.
• Cover with clingfilm, poke a hole in the top and microwave it for 2-1/2 minutes.
• Let cool, then puree the sultanas - either smooth or coarsely
• Pour the pureed sultanas into a mixing bowl, and add the orange food colouring (if using), the vanilla extract and orange zest and mix well.
• Add the sifted icing sugar carefully and beat till the mixture is fairly thick, adding more icing sugar if required to make it spreadable but still firm.
• Spread the filling on one half of the cooled split cake and top with the other half.
• Sift icing sugar thickly over the top (perhaps vanilla sugar pulsed in the blender to make vanilla icing sugar).
• Serve with a cup of strong coffee.
• As an alternative to the orange-sultana filling, split cake and fill with thick orange curd (lemon curd with 50% or more orange juice), then top with ganache.
• Non-chocolate eaters will find this delicious without the cocoa, adding another 1/4 cup of flour.