Easy Orange Cake With Chocolate Frosting Recipe

If you love the flavor combination of chocolate and orange, this moist orange cake with chocolate frosting recipe will be one of your favorite desserts.

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• What Makes This Recipe a Winner
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Equipment
• Storage
• More Cake Recipes
• Orange Cake With Chocolate Frosting

What Makes This Recipe a Winner

If you've ever had an orange-flavored chocolate, like one of Terry's Chocolate Oranges, you know just how wonderful the flavor combination is.

This orange cake recipe is moist and buttery, flavored with fresh orange juice, zest, and just a touch of orange extract.

The chocolate orange buttercream steals the show and tastes just like one of those chocolate oranges.

The frosting is so delicious that it's honestly hard for me to not eat a good portion of it before frosting the cake!

Plus, while this is a completely homemade cake, it's easy to put together since it's a one-layer cake you can frost it right in the pan.

Ingredients

This is a completely scratch-made cake and frosting made with fresh ingredients for the freshest taste.

Cake Ingredients

• Unsalted butter
• White granulated sugar
• All-purpose flour - I use King Arthur Baking brand
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt
• Buttermilk
• Orange juice
• Finely grated orange zest
• Vanilla extract
• Orange extract - I used Watkin's Orange extract - flavor/intensity may differ by brand
• Large eggs
• Baking spray for pans

Frosting Ingredients

• Unsalted butter
• Finely grated orange zest
• Powdered sugar - also known as confectioner's sugar or icing sugar
• Half & half
• Vanilla extract
• Orange extract - I used Watkin's Orange extract - flavor/potency may differ by brand
• Cocoa powder - I used regular Hershey's cocoa powder
• Fine salt - I use Kirkland fine sea salt

Garnish ideas: fresh orange zest, chocolate orange slices, chocolate dipped candied orange peels

See the printable recipe card at the end for exact quantities.

Instructions

Cake Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.

2. Place butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until fluffy.

3. While the butter and sugar mix, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, orange juice, vanilla extract, and orange extract.

5. When butter and sugar are fluffy, scrape down the sides and mix in the orange zest. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

6. Mix in half of the flour and then the milk mixture. Mix in the rest of the flour until just combined.

Hint: When mixing in the flour, mix only as much as needed.

Once you start adding flour it's important to not overmix as you may risk a dense cake.

That said, you want to make sure the flour is well incorporated, especially at the bottom of the bowl, so it's also not undermixed which can lead to similar problems.

7. Grease your 9 x 13 baking pan and then pour the cake batter into the pan, evening out the top with a spatula.

8. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake completely cool before frosting. I find a small offset spatula makes easy work of frosting.

If you want to remove the cake from the pan before frosting, let the cake cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and then turn it out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. Otherwise, you increase the risk of it sticking to the pan.

Frosting Instructions

1. Cream butter in a stand mixer (hand mixer is also okay) on medium with the whisk attachment.

2. While the butter creams, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

3. When the butter is smooth and creamy, add in orange zest and change to low speed.

4. Add in powdered sugar and cocoa mixture. Then add in extracts, salt, and half and half.

5. Once it starts to mix together, increase speed back up to medium and then high (just to make sure sugar isn't going to go flying) and whip until desired consistency. For me this is about 5 minutes until it's really light and airy.

Note that the frosting here looks lighter brown because of the lighting.

Substitutions

Unsalted butter - Salted butter can be used instead but you may need to adjust the amount of additional salt added for your tastes.

Buttermilk - I think real buttermilk results in the best texture but if you don't have it available you can add one tablespoon of lemon juice OR white vinegar per cup of whole milk.

Stir to combine and let sit for around 10 minutes before using.

Orange juice - I used squeezed juice from the fresh oranges I zested.

If you don't have fresh available or your oranges don't yield enough juice you can use bottled juice instead or in addition to fresh, though the flavor may not be quite as fresh or the same.

Orange zest - Freshly grated orange zest is preferred but you can purchase dried orange peel.

Generally, you use a third of the amount since dried is usually more potent, but check the packaging to see what the specific brand suggests.

Half and half - If you don't have this you can use half milk (preferably whole) and half heavy cream. All milk or all heavy cream can also be used though it will affect the texture of the frosting a bit.

Less milk may need to be used while more cream may be needed due to thickness differences.

Variations

Cake mix - I haven't tested this recipe using a cake mix but it should work fine with either a yellow/butter or orange cake mix.

Prepare the cake as directed on the box for a 9 x 13 with the following modifications:

If using a yellow/golden cake mix I'd use half orange juice and buttermilk instead of water. (For example, if the directions call for 1 cup of water use a half cup of buttermilk and a half cup of orange juice.)

I'd also add the orange zest, orange extract, and vanilla extract.

If using an orange cake mix I'd use buttermilk instead of water and also add the orange zest, and vanilla extract.

Bake as directed on the box.

Equipment

Here's the equipment I used (or something very similar if no longer available) to make this cake.

• 9 x 13 baking pan
• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• Mixing bowls/cups
• Sifter
• Measuring spoons and measuring cups
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Zester
• Citrus juicer
• Cake tester (wooden toothpicks also work well)
• Cooling rack
• Offset spatula

Storage

If the cake won't be completely consumed within 24 hours (or if you live in a warm and humid area) I recommend covering it well and refrigerating for up to 5 days.

Let slices sit at room temperature for several minutes to warm up as the buttercream will harden a bit.

I haven't tested the quality after freezing but it should be fine to do so for up to 3 months as long as it's well-wrapped.

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