Chocolate Chip and Orange Zebra Cake

It was my hubby's birthday and I wanted to make him a special cake, but this is a man that doesn't really appreciate baking in any form really...well he says he doesn't but normally when he has a bit of cake he enjoys it hahaha! So I decided that I would make a cake regardless of him and let everyone else enjoy it hehehehe :)) I really wanted to try something different and had seen this new idea of a zebra cake but I didn't want just plain chocolate and plain sponge and certainly not a pink version :))! So I came up with Chocolate Chip and Orange Zebra Cake and must I just say wow wow wee, it was fantastic!!!!

I came up with a new sponge and added the orange flavour as well some cocoa powder to half the batch and some good chocolate chunks (not chips, there are far too small) and it produced the most heavenly cake which received the comments "it's the best cake I've ever tasted!" And "it's like eating a Terry's chocolate orange...but in cake form!" I'm happy with those comments and for such a large cake, there wasn't much left hehe :) 

As mentioned this is quite a large cake but is a really fantastic celebration cake...so here's the recipe and I really hope you enjoy it :)

Chocolate Chip and Orange Zebra Cake

450g butter softened

300g caster sugar

150g soft brown sugar

450g self raising flour

70g ground almonds

2 tsp baking powder

6 eggs

300ml natural yoghurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 2 oranges

7 tbsp cocoa powder

100g chocolate chunks 

Butter and flour 3 x 20cm (8") cake tins

Pre heat the oven to 180/170c fan

In a large bowl add the softened butter and sugars and mix well.

Add the flour, ground almonds and baking powder and mix until incorporated. 

Add the eggs and mix them in, once incorporated add the yoghurt and vanilla extract and mix to form a nice smooth batter. Add the zest of the two oranges and mix in.

Pour half the mixture into another bowl and add the cocoa powder and stir this in until the cocoa powder has disappeared completely into the batter, then add the chocolate chips and stir in.

Line the three tins in a row and get the two batters ready

Get large serving spoons ready (2...1 for the plain orange batter and 1 for the chocolate orange batter) 

Starting with the plain orange batter, spoon (1 spoonful) some into the middle of the first tin, then repeat with the other two tins

Then spoon the chocolate orange batter on top of the plain orange batter and do in all tins

Repeat with the plain orange batter and spoon some on the chocolate batter, then the plain and then the chocolate...keep spooning each layer of flavour into the next. If you do the three tins at the same time, you should end up with the same amount of batter in each tin and the layers will be equal - if you struggle with this, feel free to just do a marble effect!

Pop into the pre heated oven for around 30 minutes (could be up to 40 minutes depending if the layers are equal)

Remove once a skewer inserted comes out clean

Allow to cool and remove from the tins 

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

140g butter softened

200g cream cheese

200g mascarpone

200g icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange

In a bowl mix the butter until lovely and soft 

Add the cream cheese, mascarpone and orange zest and mix with the butter until smooth (do not over mix as it will become runnier the more you mix)

Sift the icing sugar and mix until fully Incorporated (but remember...don't over mix)

Place one of the layers on a plate, cake stand or cake board

Spoon some of the cream cheese frosting on the top and with a palette knife smooth around the top of the cake

Place another layer on top of the bottom layer and again spoon some of the cream cheese frosting and smooth on

Place the final layer on top 

Now it's time to cover the cake, as the cake is darker underneath, it's worth getting a thin layer round the edge (crumb layer) and pop in the fridge to set to then finish off with another layer of frosting. The top is normally okay so cover the top with a good layer to begin with.

If you are preparing this a day before, pop the finished cake in the fridge and remove a couple of hours before serving so as to bring to room temperature.

And now it's time to enjoy :))