This orange chocolate truffle cake is pure decadence. Made with just a handful of ingredients and no flour, it’s a gluten free chocolate cake everyone will adore.
And if orange and chocolate is your thing like it is mine, you will appreciate my orange hot chocolate.
For more information on working with sugar, check out my candy category page.
Naturally Gluten-Free Chocolate Decadence
At the first restaurant I worked in, a version of Chocolate Truffle Cake was always on the menu. The batter stayed the same, but the garnishes changed
- sometimes we served it with coconut “confit,”
- other times we baked a wee scoop of dulce de leche inside each cake or maybe a little frozen puck of raspberry jam.
Nobody ever told me why the cake was called truffle cake, but I choose to believe it’s because when chilled, the batter is pretty much the consistency of ganache truffle centers. We would make a huge vat of batter, refrigerate it and then use an ice cream scoop to scoop it into molds for baking.
I have played around with the idea of a truffle cake for awhile and have come up with my own version and added some of my favorite flavors to the batter itself rather than introducing them in the form of garnishes.
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The resulting cake is rich, decadent and full of flavor and I’m calling it exactly what it is: Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange Truffle Cake.
There is no real crumb to speak of because there’s no flour of any kind in the batter.
Serving Suggestions
Serve it cold for a fudgy texture or heat it up a bit for a warm pudding-like texture that will make you weak in the knees.
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Serve it with a scoop of creamsicle ice cream on top to play up the chocolate orange combination.
Consider serving it in a pool of orange dessert sauce for a fancy presentation.
Never has “you can’t judge a book by its cover” been a more apt statement. Take one bite of this plain–even boring-looking–cake, and you will not want to stop eating.
A Note About Measurements
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Orange Chocolate Truffle Cake Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
- 8 oz unsalted butter
- zest of one orange
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 7 oz 1 cup Dixie Crystals sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- 2 Tablespoons instant coffee (you can use instant espresso, but you may have to cut back on the amount)
- 1 Tablespoon orange liqueur
- 5 large eggs
Instructions
- Chop the chocolate fairly finely (you can also use "buttons" or high quality chocolate chips). Place it in the mixer bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Place the butter in a small saucepan and zest an orange into the pan. Melt the butter over medium heat until almost completely melted. Swirl the pan to melt the butter completely.
- Pour the warm butter onto the chocolate in the bowl. Add the salt and put the mixer on low speed.
- Stir the sugar and water together in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan until the sugar is evenly wet. Bring the sugar and water to a boil over medium heat. Slap the lid on and let boil for a minute or two to wash the sugar crystals off the sides of the pan.
- Remove the lid and let the sugar cook until it reaches 248F. You can use a candy thermometer that stays in the pan or use your Thermapen to frequently check the temperature.
- When the sugar has reached temperature, immediately pour it into your mixer bowl (still on low speed). Mix for a few seconds then add the instant coffee and orange liqueur.
- Mix another couple of minutes and then add the eggs all at once. Mix until well combined, smooth and glossy, scraping the bowl as necessary.
- Mix until the mixture has cooled to room temperature.
- At this point, you can put it in a container in the fridge to bake sometime over the next week or so. You can also just keep right on going.
To Bake
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Line the bottom and sides of a 9" spring form pan with non-stick foil (you can use parchment, but do spray it with pan spray.
- Pour all the batter into the pan and bake in the center of the oven until the entire cake is just slightly puffed. The puffing will start around the edges, and the center will be somewhat sunken looking. Keep baking until the center rises to the same height as the edges, about 40-50 minutes, depending on your oven and if you’re baking from refrigerated or from room temperature (It will take somewhat longer if you’re starting with refrigerated batter.)
- Remove the cake to a rack to cool to warm.
- Remove the sides of the spring form pan. Carefully work a large spatula under the foil on the bottom and slide the cake off the base of the pan and just onto the rack.
- Serve slightly warm topped with the garnishes of your choice.
- Refrigerate leftover cake and let come to room temperature before serving. You can also warm it up slightly in the microwave or in a low oven. The texture of this cake is lovely either way, but it is particularly dreamy when room temperature or warmer.
Did You Make Any Changes?
Notes
Nutrition
Hi, y’all! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and hopefully also learned a thing or two.
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Thanks for taking the time to read today. I hope you’re inspired to make some version of this fabulous truffle cake.
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It looks delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.