It’s citrus season in the Deep South. All along the highways of southern Louisiana and Mississippi, vendors are setting up stands selling local satsumas and oranges. I noticed them when D, E, and I were driving back from New Orleans at Thanksgiving, but I didn’t need to stop because we were already en route to my parents’ house, where we’re fortunate enough to get to pick our fill of fruit off their trees.
If this all seems familiar to you, it’s because we did the same thing last Thanksgiving and I took photos of it. Invariably we take more fruit than we can actually use, so I’m constantly on the lookout for good citrus recipes.
And I found a great one, in an article all about citrus in a local magazine. The recipe that caught my eye was a decadent-looking dessert containing one of my favorite flavor combinations, chocolate and orange. I love creamy dark chocolate spiked with tangy bits of orange, though it’s far from a fat-free food. But as I looked at the cake recipe, I thought, “I can do this–and make it fat-free and vegan!”
So I took the basic idea for the cake–to add orange juice and peel to a chocolate cake–and used it with my standard chocolate cake recipe, the one I pull out for birthdays and celebrations. In order to keep the cake low-fat, I needed to substitute something for the 3/4 cup of oil that the recipe calls for. Lately I’ve had excellent results using soy yogurt instead of oil, so that’s what I did.
The verdict? Best fat-free cake ever! While it’s not as light as a normal cake, the denseness contributes to the dark chocolate feel. It sparkles throughout with the taste of orange, and because it’s not a super-sweet cake, the icings provide just the right accent without being cloying. I served it to my daughter and her friend without mentioning the lack of fat (or the inclusion of whole wheat flour) and they both loved it. I wouldn’t hesitate to serve this cake to guests.
See those orange pieces in the first cake photo? I put them there just for decoration, but my daughter insisted on squeezing some over her cake. I didn’t try it, but she says it tastes great that way. She and her friend ate a whole orange along with their cake. Now that’s one way to get children to eat fruit!
Chocolate-Orange Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 3/4 cup soy yogurt or other non-dairy yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
- 2 tablespoons grated orange peel
Chocolate Icing:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon cocoa
- 2 teaspoons orange juice
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)
- extra orange juice as needed
Orange Icing:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon orange juice
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1/8 tsp. if double strength)
- extra orange juice as needed
Instructions
- Spray a Bundt cake pan with non-stick spray and dust it lightly with unsweetened cocoa. Preheat oven to 350F.
- Combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add the yogurt, vanilla, balsamic vinegar, water, and orange juice. Beat by hand or with a mixer on low speed just until well-combined, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in the grated orange peel, and pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert it onto a serving platter and cool completely.
- When the cake is cool, make the icings. For each icing, mix the ingredients in separate small bowls. One half teaspoon at a time, stir in enough extra orange juice to make a drizzling consistency.
- Drizzle the chocolate icing over the cake, wait a few minutes for it to set, and then drizzle the orange icing.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Anonymous
September 15, 2009 at 5:21 amhye susan. i baked the cake few minutes ago. but it was not dark as yours. why is that? and now i haven't tasted it yet..
SusanV
September 15, 2009 at 7:26 amHmmm, that's strange. Maybe we used different brands of cocoa powder?
Laci
September 26, 2009 at 8:38 pmHi Susan
I made this for my cousin's birthday, but used 2 more tsp of fresh squeezed OJ in the frosting, and 1/3 cup more powdered sugar for the chocolate frosting. Either way, it was incredible! Everyone loved it's dense, sweet richness and no one knew it was vegan! 🙂
PS Ironically, my little cousins passed on the cake and raced for the orange wedges in the middle, so cute! 😉
Mary
October 12, 2009 at 12:27 amHello!
I was looking for a chocolate orange cake for my husband's birthday so made yours and it was AMAZING And EASY! And PRETTY!
Thank you!
You can see mine here:
http://lifes-gifts.livejournal.com/224260.html?thread=416260#t416260
Jennifer
November 26, 2009 at 7:28 pmI made this cake today, and I just took it out of the oven, and oh my goodness I smells wonderful. I cannot wait to taste this cake. Thank you so much for the recipe.
Hannah
December 23, 2009 at 6:00 pmI made this cake the other day, and IT IS AMAZING!! It has kept well for a few days now, too, and I have a little bit every day 🙂 I have made a few of your recipes and have loved them all, however, I felt compelled to comment for this one. This cake is unbelievably moist, rich, and delicious – nobody could believe it was egg-less, milk-less, and butter-less. I followed the recipe exactly, and it went straight into my "keepers" file. Susan, you are amazing and I really appreciate your recipes!
Taffy
January 5, 2010 at 10:16 pmWould this recipe work at high altitudes – say, 5,000 feet?
SusanV
January 5, 2010 at 10:51 pmTaffy, I'll have to let someone else answer that since I've never tried. You could do a Google search for high altitude baking and see what adjustments you'd have to make. Good luck!
Taffy
January 7, 2010 at 1:42 amI made a high altitude version (5.000 ft.) by reducing the baking soda by 1/4 teaspoon, increasing the water by 1 tablespoon and raising the temperature of the oven to 360 degrees. It was beautiful and tasted great.
Anonymous
January 12, 2010 at 1:00 amI can hear Mr. Rogers say, "won't you be my neighbor!" This looks so great. I want a bite right now. I need to make this when my mom comes to visit next week! WOW!
Steph
January 26, 2010 at 8:38 pmOkay so I made this for my birthday and here are my GF adjustments:
First subbing out the 3 cups of flour for a mixture: 1 cup of sorghum/1 cup tapioca and potato blend (rounded cups), a 1/2 tbsp of oil and 1/4 cup yogurt, reduced the water to a little under 2/3 cup and added more to until just moist.
Essentially I just wanted it to not be sticky, a slightly more thick counterpart to regular cake batter.
I baked it in the Wilton Giant Cake pan for about an hour, watching to make sure it didn't brown too much.
My friends devoured it 🙂
arielmaya
January 28, 2010 at 5:43 pmDear Susan,
Thank you so much for this wonderful cake recipe! When I saw it, I knew I had found the perfect cake for my friend's surprise birthday party. I was a little nervous about making a fat-free cake, and I contemplated using oil instead of the soy yogurt, but I decided to follow your recipe to the letter and I am so glad that I did! The cake came out perfectly– it was rich, perfectly moist, and the orange flavor really shone through. I think that I added too much orange juice to the icings, because they weren't as solid/opaque as yours, but the result was still delicious. I used clementines for the juice and zest and served the cake with clementines and vegan coconut milk ice cream. Everyone loved it and my friend said that it was her favorite! I don't bake very often, but you've inspired me to make more of your recipes. I've also made your eggplant paprikash and tofu omelettes with great results.
All my best,
Ariel
The Curious Baker
February 9, 2010 at 2:41 pmNow this looks GREAT! I reckon it shouldn't be too hard to make this gluten free, if the screen wasn't here, I'd be sinking my teeth into a slice of this right now!
The Real Me
February 11, 2010 at 8:01 pmI've just found your blog recently and was looking around when I found this recipe — oh my goodness!
I can't wait to try it, but I have one small problem — I can find the yogurt. (side effect of rural life) Any suggestions for a substitute? Could I make a really thick "buttermilk" soymilk?
Thanks.
benedictus
February 15, 2010 at 2:10 pmOh. My. Freaking. Gosh. (sorry, sorry..I can't express my emotions right now). I just finished making this recipe and because I couldn't wait until I went to go to the grocery store to get all the ingredients, so I had to substitute a few things and it still came out great! I didn't have a bundt pan, so I made CUPCAKES!!! The recipe was enough to make 24 cupcakes and about 10 tablespoons of batter for me to eat! My substitutions: I used 2 cups of freshly ground wheat berries and 1 cup of unbleached flour. I used applesauce instead of the soy yogurt. I used apple-cider vinegar instead of the balsamic vinegar. I didn't have any orange peel and probably could have put a little more orange juice and cut back a little on the water, but didn't. Next time I will. They were SOOOOO good and smelled delicious. Mine were a little sticky/spongy, but also had the texture of a chewy brownie, which I love. I have gone from vegetarian to vegan and back to vegetarian to straying sometimes with butter, eggs and cheese. Now, I can have my cake and eat it too. There is no reason you can't enjoy good food and still make it vegan. My two young boys are strictly vegan and I dread when their birthday's come around because of cake issues. This is the perfect solution. You have NO idea what a blessing this is for me and the health of my family. It's so nice to know there are others out there in search of a healthy, pure way of eating. Perfect!
Anonymous
February 18, 2010 at 1:47 pmHi Susan – another great recipe. I made it and it was wonderful. My only problem was that the white frosting didn't hold it's color at all. I followed the ingredients, but it seemed to dissolve into the cake – which was incredibly moist. I don't know if altitude has anything to do with it or not, I'm in Denver. Any ideas?
SusanV
February 18, 2010 at 2:20 pmYou might try making the icing a little thicker next time–more powdered sugar should do the trick. Let me know if that works!
Anonymous
February 20, 2010 at 4:43 amI used your recipe to make Mexican cupcakes for a Mexican party I'm throwing tonight – I upped the cinnamon a little and added a whack of cayenne pepper.
I've just got them out the oven, and the smell was too much to resist a bite…. Best chocolate cakes ever! Thank you so much for the recipe!!!
Sandy
March 3, 2010 at 11:36 pmOK, I'm a vegan now. Fat-free chocolate cake? I'm in.
Emem Udom
April 19, 2010 at 4:28 pmHi Susan!
I made this cake a couple of weeks ago and it was great! Still cant believe it is fatfree, makes you realise how many unnecessary ingredients people put in cakes.
Michael Cavinta
April 20, 2010 at 11:13 amWow! This is an amazing recipe! Thanks for sharing this to us as I too am a vegan. I really want to try this one out and will do it this weekend for my house-warming party. Hopefully everyone will love it, especially if I serve it with a hot cup of coffee made from my one of my espresso coffee makers. Great post! Thanks!
Karen
April 24, 2010 at 2:46 amHi Susan,
I am not a strict vegan. Can I use regualar yoghurt?
Thanks!
SusanV
April 24, 2010 at 7:57 amSure, Karen. Dairy yogurt should work fine.
Gloria
April 25, 2010 at 10:27 pmI made this cake today. I used coconut milk yogurt instead and halved the recipe since there is only two of us.
It is delish! This was the 3rd recipe of yours that I made this weekend. We also had fettucine no-alfredo and the Mexican lasagna. It was a great weekend, with wonderful leftovers for lunch this week.
Thanks
Healthy Dessert
April 29, 2010 at 12:02 amChocolate and Orange !!! How could some one think of a combination this great 🙂 Thank you so much. I am just loving your blogs 🙂 Now gonna bookmark it !!! Thanks again.
Sara
May 7, 2010 at 9:07 pmThe cake was great, specially the flavor combination,
but I have just one question though:
Should it be as rubbery as I got it?
Is it because of the fat-free thing?
Fantastic blog BTW.
P.S: By rubbery I mean spongy and extremely overelastic.
Maria
May 12, 2010 at 12:56 pmI’ve made this cake before (it was DELICIOUS), but now I have no balsamic vinegar on hand (and I’m moving, so I don’t want to buy a whole bottle just for 2 TBSP!)
What would be the consequences of leaving out the balsamic vinegar? Could I substitute apple cider vinegar or something…?
SusanV
May 12, 2010 at 1:06 pmMaria, apple cider vinegar will work fine. Hope you enjoy it!
Anu Rang
May 21, 2010 at 7:47 amSusan,
I did this cake yesterday and it came out sooooooooooooo good. I used a little bit more orange juice and I used oil fro the original recipe, as my son is allergic to milk and soy. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe. I do have one question- my icing was not as thick or opaque as yours. It was more watery and just dissolved into the cake, which was fine as it tasted awesome, but what am I doing wrong…next time I want it to look as good too;)
Thanks
SusanV
May 21, 2010 at 7:56 amHi Anu–I’m happy you liked the cake and found a variation that your son could enjoy too. About the icing, I would start off with less liquid than what I specified in the recipe, adding more drop by drop as you stir so that the icing is thicker but still pourable. Sometimes it’s tricky getting it to the right consistency, and if you add a little too much liquid, you’d have to add more sugar. It’s easy to get carried away and wind up with more icing than you need. 🙂
alison
May 22, 2010 at 5:58 pmI made this last night with a few substitutions (I was out of/didn’t have a few things on your ingredient list)…1.5 cups almond meal for the unbleached flour (I still used 1.5 cups white whole wheat flour also), apple sauce for the soy yogurt, 1.5 cups of a mix of agave nectar/brown rice syrup instead of the sugar, 3/4 of a bag of vegan semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the cocoa, and blueberries instead of orange juice and it still turned out AMAZING! Thank you Susan for this amazing recipe! I’ve been vegetarian for a few years, and vegan for a couple months, and I LOVE your site! Thanks again
Jillian
June 24, 2010 at 9:13 pmI have a friend who’s a vegan (well, she tries to be most of the time :)) and who also loves the combination of chocolate and orange. So for her birthday, I decide to make her a cake that will suit her lifestyle and have her favorite flavors. Your recipe/blog came up first, so I decided to try it out. I have doubts about the whole fat-free concept being delicious, but your Chocolate Orange Cake made me a believer. It was so good; no one believed it had a touch of dairy in it! I’ve since tried it without the orange flavor, just making it more chocolate-y and it’s just as good.
Lori
June 30, 2010 at 5:43 pmThis just cooled enough for me to cut a slice, and WOW is all I can say! It’s sooo tasty. I baked it right at 30 minutes. It looked and felt done, but it’s a little bit gooey in the center, so I’ll go to 35 next time. (Not that I mind gooey chocolate goodness !)
I subbed a few things – used almond extract instead of vanilla, applesauce instead of yogurt, swapped the measurements of OJ and water (I didn’t have much zest), and added in a pinch each of nutmeg and cloves.
This is just a wonderful cake, and I haven’t even put the icing on it yet. Thank you so much for helping make life delicious!
Lori
June 30, 2010 at 10:11 pmOh AND – my second favorite thing about this cake (after the magical deliciousness) is that I can make it in one bowl. No muss, no fuss! Perfect!
Jennifer
July 7, 2010 at 4:19 pmSusan –
I regularly lurk around your blog and enoy it very much.
I was looking for inspiration for a strawberry cake when I came across this recipe through your FB page. I’ve used your recipe as a jumping off point for a Chocolate Strawberry Balsamic cake – seen here http://cake-concoctions-etc.blogspot.com/2010/07/chocolate-strawberry-balsamic-cake.html
Thanks for the great recipes and inspiration!
Jennifer
Kylie
July 22, 2010 at 10:00 amI love that you have fat free cake recipes! 🙂
I have an ulcer, so I’m not allowed to eat anything fatty, and your blog has made that SOOOO much easier! My birthday is on Sunday, and I’m thinking about having my mom make this cake, but I have a few questions. Would there be any changes if we use regular all purpose flour instead of the unbleached and regular whole wheat flour instead of white whole wheat? I’ve already made her buy so many things so I could try your recipes that I feel bad to keep sending her to the store.
Thanks!
Kylie
SusanV
July 22, 2010 at 10:27 amKylie, I think it should be fine with both of those flour substitutions. The white whole wheat has a lighter taste and color and is a little less gritty than regular, so someday you may want to give it a try (when you run out of what you’ve already bought). Happy birthday, and I hope you enjoy the cake!
Hannah
July 30, 2010 at 12:52 pmHey Susan,
I was wondering what I could substitute for the orange juice as I don’t have any?
Thanks!