Perfect orange cake and chocolate mousse come together in this very easy yet stunning presentation for a mousse cake.
I have always loved chocolate and orange together
So for me this Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake is a total win!
The idea for the cake came after I made my recent Orange Poppy Lazy Loaf.
It is a no mixer required cake recipe hence the name “lazy loaf”
So be sure to check out that recipe too if you are not into making the chocolate mousse and the layering like I did here.
This cake has a whole orange whizzed right into the batter so there are lovely little chunks of orange and that rind imparts the best orange essence ever!
The best orange to use for this process is a smaller orange without a heavy thick skin.
I find clementines or small navel oranges to be the best.
Definitely slice them open first just to make sure there are no seeds lurking inside and pluck them out before you whiz them up!
But I decided to not be so completely lazy today and take this orange cake recipe to another level.
For this Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake
Only this time I left out the poppy seeds, baked it into cake pans and decided to fill it up with my awesome recipe of vegan chocolate mousse!
For the even easier time, check out this 2 Ingredient Chocolate Mousse recipe I recently showed you!
Which ever way you go you will have yourself a really easy dessert that looks like you have been in the kitchen all day preparing it!
Cut into individual portions like I did, or served as a whole cake and yes you can make it into a round cake if you prefer it is surely going to knock some socks off!
Notes:
You will notice in the video tutorial below that I baked the batter into 4- 1/8 sheet pans but ended up only using 3 of the layers!
Since I wanted to serve these as individual portions rather than a full, tall family style cake, I thought the 4 layers would just be too tall for that type of serving size.
So I ended up using only 3 of them, and I munched on that 4th layer with a nice slathering of the extra vegan ganache! LOL
You can of course use all 4 layers if you wish!
For a round cake: divide the batter between 3-7″ cake pans and then build the cake as shown in the video tutorial
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
- For the Orange Cake:
- Plant Milk ¾ cup (177ml)
- 1 Small Navel Orange or 2 small clementines= total weight of orange with skin on is 5oz (that's approximately 2 small clementines or 1 small navel) total volume measure of pureed orange(s) with the skin on is a scant ½ cup
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons
- Cake Flour 1¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons (225g)
- Egg Replacer * I am using The Plant Based Egg 1½ teaspoons *see note above
- Granulated Sugar 14 Tablespoons (195g)
- Baking Powder 3 teaspoons
- Salt ¾ teaspoon
- Vegan Butter Melted or Vegetable Oil 9 Tablespoons (126g)
- 1 Recipe Chocolate MousseOR
- 2 Ingredient Chocolate Mousse CLICK HERE
- First pull of the hard stem of the orange is there are any and check the oranges for seeds by slicing them in half and remove seeds if there are any. The skins stay on the orange, so leave that intact.
- Place all of the ingredients into a food processor and processor until smooth batter (about 1 minute)
- The orange goes in whole, skin and all! The skin is where the oil essence is and that gives the cake a beautiful orange flavor and fragrance unmatched by just the juice or any extract. Just be sure to cut them open first to see if there are any seeds, in which case remove the seeds first.
- Fold in poppy seeds and pour batter into a greased loaf pan
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for approximately 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the pan until you are able to touch it with your hands without burning them, then flip the loaf out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.
- Meanwhile prepare the chocolate mousse recipe as directed on that recipe post then build the cake as shown in the video tutorial
3.5.3251
Hi Gretchen
Planning on making this for an afternoon tea this week, I don’t have access to the egg replacer you mention. Would the same measure of flax be a comparable substitute?
Thanks heaps
Hi Dan! awesome! Flax is not recommended here- this cake is super moist already and will get heavy with the flax (flax= more fat=heavy) and not a really gret binder in this recipe. If you can get a comparable proprietary blend like Bobs Red Mill or Orgran? That would be best.
Hi Gretchen
Love all your recipes! This looks so delicious and I cannot wait to make it.
Was following your recipe and have a few questions:
1) the video measurements are different from the ones on this page. Is that because that’s for four 1/8 layers and this is for two 1/8 layers? Video = more batter?
2) in the video, you’ve used vinegar to create buttermilk. On this page, there is no vinegar. I’m going to go ahead and add vinegar anyway, but would you prefer a particular way?
3) you’ve used 4 oranges in the video, and on this page there is just one. Is that because of different volume of batter again?
I’m following the recipe on this page, using the video to see how you put it all together 🙂 I’m sure it will be delicious! Will report back with results. Wish me luck!!
And thank you again 😊
I made this cake just as it was written on this page, except with vinegar in the milk.
De-li-cious! You’re spot on – one orange gave me just about 1/2 cup orange pulp/juice!
It is closest to this orange cake I used to make, which used a lot of eggs. I’m sooooo happy with this recipe, Gretchen. Thank you so very much!!! Can’t wait to make it again for my extended family. Porch drop offs in the near future!
5 stars!
FYI, the recipe still has references to poppy seeds in it.
thank you!