Personalized Chocolate Cake

Food and Prop Styling by Goldie Stern
Food Prep and Consultant Chaya Surie Goldberger
Photography by Felicia Perretti

This is a beautiful and delicious addition to any cake platter and can also serve as dessert. Whoever tasted it had at least two pieces! When I was developing this recipe, I had too many oranges in the house (as it was still during shemittah, when you end up with a lot of whatever’s available!), and I decided to incorporate the flavor into a chocolate cake and into the glaze as well. Although it’s a favorite combo of mine, I realized that everyone has their own preferred flavor undertones to a chocolate cake, so the note below offers many other options. Freezes beautifully, too.

YIELDS 2 DOZEN SQUARES

• ¾ cup oil
• scant ¾ cup sugar
• full ½ cup light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1¾ cups whole-wheat pastry or white spelt flour (or regular white flour)
• scant ¾ cup good-quality cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• zest of ½ orange
• ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice (juice of 1 orange)
• 3 Tbsp orange liqueur + soy milk to equal 1 cup

Glaze

• 2 Tbsp oil
• 3 Tbsp cocoa
• 1¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
• 3 Tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1 tsp orange liqueur
• espresso chocolate, chunked, for garnish (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 9×13-inch (23×33-cm) baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer, place oil and sugars and mix together. Add eggs and beat for 2 minutes until thick and creamy.