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.
Theresa
August 20, 2012 at 2:41 pmI don’t have any whole wheat flour and was wondering if I could I substitute whole wheat pastry flour?
Susan Voisin
August 20, 2012 at 2:46 pmYes, that will work just fine.
sam
September 13, 2012 at 1:49 pmi made this cake last week and it was such a success.i made it with all purpose flour but was wondering if i could reduce the sugar to 1 cup?would it affect the way the cake rises?
Outfit31
December 6, 2012 at 9:41 amSince I’ve found your site last April, I use it all the time and have never had one of your recipes turn out any way but WONDERFUL!!! Thank you for all the yummy recipes!!! My family thanks you too!
Smita
December 6, 2012 at 11:29 amThanks so much for this recipe Susan!
My husband went thru a bypass surgery 2 months back and I have been looking for fat free recipes to try out.. Your blog seems God-sent!!
I will look around in Abu Dhabi( United Arab Emirates) for soy yogurt t try and bake this for him.. Do you think, since we are vegetarians, but not vegan, we could substitute low fat yogurt in the recipe?
Thanks again!!
Smita
December 6, 2012 at 11:54 amIgnore my question! Read through the comments and found my answer.. 🙂 will look at low fat yogurt and report back 🙂
Esther at A,B,C,Vegan
December 7, 2012 at 12:35 pmThis is the most forgiving cake in the WORLD. (Or I’ve become a much better baker than I realized. Or both. 🙂 ) I started mixing it up last night and then got interrupted and wasn’t able to finish – had already added the baking soda and vinegar, which meant that reaction was already happening. Soooo… I picked up where I left off this morning, added a little bit of this, a little bit of that to compensate for that and not having enough balsamic or yogurt… all sorts of things. Long story… umm, long, 🙂 cake still came out beautifully and delicious!! Thank you!!
Susan Voisin
December 7, 2012 at 12:44 pmWow, that’s amazing! I wouldn’t think it would rise after sitting so long. I vote for your having great baking skills!
Esther at A,B,C,Vegan
December 8, 2012 at 12:06 amThank you! I did add more baking soda and vinegar in the morning to compensate, since I knew that would be an issue. Brought it to a party tonight and it received rave reviews! From all the non-vegans, of course. 🙂
Shane
December 9, 2012 at 1:37 pmMade this today and it was delicious. It ended up more like brownie consistency then a light cake, but we really liked it all the same. Not sure if that’s how it was supposed to be or just something I did. It might have been because we used a mini-bundt cake pan. They turned out beautifully though, and made great gifts for the neighbors. I also learned to be extra careful the next time I buy soy yogurt. I assumed that if it was soy yogurt it would be dairy free, but the one I got wasn’t (O’Soy from Stonyfields). In fact, none of the soy yogurts at my grocery store were dairy free. The all use active milk cultures with the soy milk. This was a learning experience for us but also a big disappointment for our neighbor who is dairy allergic. This of course is not a critique of the recipe, just thought I’d share our discovery with others. What brand do you use?
Susan Voisin
December 9, 2012 at 1:46 pmSorry about that Shane! Yes, O’Soy is notoriously non-vegan. I wish they made that plainer on their packaging. I use Wildwood most of the time and Whole Soy when I can’t find Wildwood.
And I’m sorry the cake was brownie-like. It’s not supposed to be!
Shane
December 9, 2012 at 5:27 pmThanks Susan, I’ll ask my grocer about the Wildwood brand. Not sure what I did wrong with recipe but we’ll definitely be trying it again.
B rittany
December 10, 2012 at 6:02 amI made this cake for some vegan friends and used lime juice & rind instead of oranges. It came out perfect – not too sweet but the icing adds just enough sweetness. The lime flavor really came through and made it taste light even though it looks so dense.
Kathryn
December 19, 2012 at 9:43 amIt looks like this cake doesn’t really need any more praise……but I have to say I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out wonderful! I wouldn’t change a thing, not only did it taste delicious but it looked amazing! Thank you Susan for all you do, your website is where I go to look for new recipes.
Lars J
December 24, 2012 at 2:02 pmI made muffins out of these and they turned out really well. Everybody said they could taste the orange and chocolate. Woohoo! (I made orange icing with orange juice, powdered sugar and a touch of guar gum.)
Meredith
December 26, 2012 at 5:24 pmI made this for Christmas eve dinner and it was divine. Such a perfect recipe and it looked so pretty. I only bought one orange and it zested only a tbs so i had to zest some clementines 🙂 It all worked out.
Karen
January 15, 2013 at 10:21 amHi Susan,
I’m enjoying your recipes, and planning to make the Orange cake for my book club next week. My question is, is the cake better the next day, or that day? I’m trying to determine when to make it!
Thanks
Karen
Susan Voisin
January 15, 2013 at 10:28 amI would say it’s better the day it’s made, though others may differ with me. I think it gathers more moisture the longer it stands, which isn’t a bad thing. So…it may be a matter of personal taste.
Radha
January 23, 2013 at 9:25 pmI really want to make this recipe. I was wondering why you use half unbleached flour and half whole wheat.
Does it make a difference in the taste or is it for health purposes?
Thank you very much.
Susan Voisin
January 23, 2013 at 10:03 pmThe whole wheat makes it healthier and the unbleached makes it taste better. You can use all of either one if you prefer.
Lily
April 17, 2013 at 8:37 amHi!
Wow, this recipe looks absolutely delicious!Planning on making it as a surprise cake for my sister’s birthday next week! Just wondering- approximately how many calories is in the entire cake? Sorry for the weird question but my brother is currently cutting back on calories these days and he will want to know. Thanks!
Lily
April 18, 2013 at 8:10 pmJust in case somebody was thinking to try pureeing oranges if they didn’t have orange juice on hand… I wanted to speak up and say I really don’t recommend it!! I saw some other cake recipes that used a pureed orange and thought maybe I could substitute it in here. It just makes the cake really bitter and dense. Unsalvagable 🙁 I’ll follow the recipe to the letter next time!
Agne
April 26, 2013 at 3:50 pmHey Susan,
do you think it would be possible to make this recipe into the regular white cake? Would it be enough to change the cacao with the same amount of flour? I want to use this as a base to use a lemon poppy-seed cake 🙂 Have tried once already but not cannot remember, whether I substituted cacao one on one by flour or in some different manner. Maybe You know, whether cacao absorbs more water or no?
Susan Voisin
April 26, 2013 at 4:30 pmAgne, I think using the same amount of flour would work. But I have another cake that is much closer to what you want. Have you tried this one: https://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/03/strawberry-snack-cake.html
Agne
May 7, 2013 at 4:41 amThank You, Susan!
Minibaker
May 9, 2013 at 5:41 amI would like to make this cake tomorrow for a Mothers Day Potbless Brunch this Saturday. What size square tin should I use if I don’t have a bundt tin. I hope you can reply me soon. Tks
Susan Voisin
May 9, 2013 at 7:16 amDo you have a 9×13 rectangular pan? That’s what I would use.
Anne
May 21, 2013 at 12:01 pmI making this for my birthday!! I’m so excited,I like this combinations orange and cocoa,and balsamic vinegar usually use apple cider vinegar. Right now is in the oven and it smell delicious!! Thank you for this recipes!
liana
September 13, 2013 at 6:56 amAbsolutely amazing cake! We started on Dr. Ornish’s diet a month ago, and deserts seem the hardest to prepare. This cake was a success for my entire family, not just the vegans. Thank you.
Michele Marie
November 3, 2013 at 12:35 amI’ve made this cake a number of times and just made it again for company tomorrow. I halved it this time, and made it in a loaf pan. And for the first time ever, my icing came out JUST RIGHT! (it’s usually too runny) I made it very thick, almost paste. I spread the chocolate on top and then put the vanilla in a plastic baggie and ‘piped’ it on in a zig zag. I also added some left over zest to each of the icings and that made them extra tasty!
I can’t wait to serve it tomorrow night!
Megha
December 6, 2013 at 1:40 amHi Susan, I read all the reviews here. The cake gets an excellent from everyone.
I made it today. I faced 2 problems, one is that the batter came out thick according to the measurements that I given here. So I added little milk to make it right. Was that the right thing to add or oil I can use or you have a third better option ! Secondly, I tasted the batter before putting in the oven and it tasted little bitter(something which an orange can release) so I added sugar to balance it.
The cake has come up well but there s no shine. Oil can be used for shine or other option you have?
Thank you
Jen
December 13, 2013 at 12:27 pmI’m just curious about the soy yogurt you used in this recipe. Was it plain soy yogurt or flavored? I’m having a surprisingly difficult time finding unflavored/ plain soy yogurt at my local coops!
Susan Voisin
December 13, 2013 at 12:55 pmWhen I created this recipe, plain soy yogurt was easy to find, but since then, one of the main suppliers has had to pause production. But you can use flavored soy yogurt in this with no problem. I would choose a flavor like vanilla, apricot, or blueberry. I’m also going to be doing some experimentation with other substitutes, so stay tuned.
Kim Fuller
December 15, 2013 at 8:59 amI made this last night for some Omni company and it was excellent! Looks and tastes like the bundt cakes I used to make. Very happy.
Kim Fuller
December 15, 2013 at 9:00 amBTW, I used Coconut Yogurt from Trader Joe’s. Couldn’t find any soy.
Judeen
December 23, 2013 at 8:57 amThank you so much for your blog. I have made and enjoyed many of your recipes. Have a wonderful holiday season.
Jamie
December 25, 2013 at 10:27 pmI made this for Christmas dessert, and it was absolutely delicious! I used vanilla flavored coconut yogurt due to the supply issue mentioned above.
Thank you so much for your site, Susan! I also made your stuffed seitan loaf today (also delicious.) Happy Holidays to you and your family.
2da4est
December 27, 2013 at 2:48 pmJust tried this cake. Superb!!! Definitely in my recipes forever.
Thank you!
dina
January 31, 2014 at 9:07 amI have a copy of this recipe from a magazine, it is yours, but it omits the water in the ingredients; how important is the cup and 1/2 to the recipe?
Also, for the balsamic vinegar do you recommend white balsamic or the “regular” redish type?
If i use vanilla yogurt should I omit the vanilla extract?
Thanks!
Susan Voisin
January 31, 2014 at 10:10 amA lot of good questions! But first, I have one for you: can you tell me the name and date of the magazine you saw this in? I don’t remember giving permission for it to be reprinted, but maybe I’ve forgotten.
The water is absolutely necessary. (A problem with people reprinting recipes without permission is that they often get them disastrously wrong.)
I used and recommend dark balsamic vinegar.
I wouldn’t leave out the vanilla but I would reduce the sugar by a tablespoon or two if your yogurt is sweetened.
Bonnie
March 1, 2014 at 9:48 amHi Susan,
Have you tried this will all whole wheat flour instead of adding the white flour?
I am going to give it a try, and may try using 1/2 ground oats instead of the white flour…
Thanks so much,
Bonnie
Bonnie
March 6, 2014 at 9:42 pmMade this tonight as a test for a desert for my daughter’s violin recital. Used all sprouted whole wheat flour, vanilla soy yogurt and 1 cup of sugar instead of 1 1/2 because of the sweetened yogurt. It was delicious and loved by my entire family. My daughter declared it the best chocolate cake in the universe! Thanks Susan for a great recipe!
Franp
June 17, 2014 at 7:28 pmI always find something yummy on your site and this chocolate orange cake was no exception. My only sub was coconut yogurt rather than soy . The cake was moist, rich, luscious and we each ate 2 pieces! We try not to use much sugar but today was my daughter’s birthday and it called for this perfect treat. Thank you!
Hope Green
July 18, 2014 at 3:59 pmI adore this cake. I McDougall- so my sub was applesauce for the soy yogurt. 2nd time I made it, and I make 1/2 recipe for the 2 of us in a silicone loaf pan {perfection!} I subbed 2/3 cup sugar for the 3/4 cup. Left the icing as it was in whole recipe. It tastes no different to me- just plain awesome!! Can I try 1/2 cup of sugar the next time? because I would like the sugar as low as possible- but don’t want hubby in an uproar that it isn’t as good lol… He cuts the loaf into 10 pieces… and would walk on the ceiling to get a piece… Astounds me that after 5 days in rubbermaid container it is STILL MOIST and super YUMMY!!
Amy
October 16, 2014 at 12:04 pmHi Susan! My daughter signed me up to make a snack for her French club and we decided to make this chocolate-orange cake. I subbed Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour for the other two flours and it turned out great. Now I have to make a second one for my family as I’m sure there will be no leftovers!
Kindra
December 16, 2014 at 2:47 pmHow much sugar per serving please?
Amber
March 8, 2015 at 5:34 pmis this gluten free as well? i want to make it for my birthday because one of my friends is vegan and another is allergic to gluten.
Amanda
July 28, 2015 at 12:53 pmHi Susan!
SOOO excited to bake this cake! Do you think it would be alright to bake a day ahead of the event I’ll be serving it at? I won’t have time the day of! What would be the best method of 24hr storage, if so?
Thanks!
Amanda
Susan Voisin
July 28, 2015 at 2:55 pmI think it should be okay stored in a cake box overnight, with the icing added just before serving. But I have to admit I haven’t ever been able to keep from eating it the first day. 🙂
Amanda
July 28, 2015 at 2:57 pmThat’s another thing I’m afraid of 😉 Hopefully, I’ll be able to restrain myself!
Thanks again!
-A
Crystal
April 6, 2016 at 7:00 amHi! I do not have a bundt cake pan I was wondering if it is possible to bake this in a normal 6×6 cake tin?
Susan Voisin
April 6, 2016 at 8:23 am6×6 would be too small, I think. You would probably have a better cake if you used 8×8.
Melissa
May 20, 2016 at 3:05 pmI was a German Chocolate Cake with Coconut Frosting for my every birthday until my last birthday kind of girl until I tried this cake. So moist, dense, chocolatey, orangey fantastic! The first time I had it I ate for dessert, breakfast and lunch, haha.
Tatjana
August 10, 2017 at 10:11 amCan I replace the icing sugar with something else? I used maple syrup and stevia for the cake itself, but it would be nice to have something really sweet, but sugar and fat-free on top
Tatjana
August 10, 2017 at 10:14 amAlso, the batter was very gooey, more like bread dough – is this normal? should I add more orange juice or yogourt next time?
Tatjana
August 10, 2017 at 10:18 amIt would also be absolutely awesome if you could maybe post variations of this cake 🙂 thanks so very much for the recipe
Kerstin Decker
September 25, 2017 at 6:19 pmSo I made this wonderful cake. My hubby likes and it is tasty but it is a little chewy . Did I over process the cake before baking it .
Valerie
October 16, 2017 at 4:36 pmI made this gluten free using 1.5 cups Bob’s Red Mill GF Flour Mix and 1.5 cups brown rice flour. It came out a little dry and crumbly. I think when I make it again (and their will be a next time) I’ll add an egg replacer for moisture. And while I made the icing that goes with it, we preferred chocolate hazelnut butter for frosting with this. The flavor was very good overall.