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.
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.
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.
If you have questions about this post or recipe, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can leave a comment on the post and I will get back to you within about 24 hours.
If your question is more urgent, please shoot me an email, and I will respond within 4 hours, unless I’m asleep.
A Note About Measurements
NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids.
Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.
This is the scale I use, love, and recommend. If you’re unsure, please read my post about how to use a food scale.
If you make this recipe and/or have enjoyed or learned from reading this post, I’d appreciate it if you could share this!
I have Convenient share buttons that float to the left on desk top and on mobile which invite you to share on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter or Yummly.
If you make the recipe, please consider rating it a rating and a review. You can do this via the recipe card in the post.
Reviews really help sell the recipe, and negative reviews help me tune into what people really want to have explained better, so any ratings and reviews are helpful!
Also feel free to tag me on Instagram at @onlinepastrychef with #pcorecipe so I can find your creation. Thank you!
Orange Chocolate Truffle Cake Recipe
Orange chocolate truffle cake is super dense and decadent and naturally gluten free. It's a fancy dessert only containing a few ingredients. It's also really easy to make variations. A great dessert recipe to have on hand.
Ingredients
- 12 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
- 8 oz unsalted butter
- zest of one orange
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 7 oz (1 cup) Dixie Crystals sugar
- 1/3 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.
Notes
Feel free to vary the flavors here. Swirl in 1/2 cup of raspberry jam instead of using orange zest and liqueur. Or add actual raspberries to the batter and sub Chambord for the orange liqueur.
Batter keeps in the fridge for a good 2 weeks.
You can also bake these as individual cakes in small cake rings. See equipment recommendations. Line each ring with a strip of parchment (or spray them well with pan spray, place them on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and fill each ring almost to the top with batter. Bake until nicely risen with light cracks all over, about 30 minutes.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information
Yield 12 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 320Total Fat 26gSaturated Fat 15gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 9gCholesterol 118mgSodium 79mgCarbohydrates 22gFiber 2gSugar 19gProtein 4g
The stated nutritional information is provided as a courtesy. It is calculated through third party software and is intended as a guideline only.
Want me to shoot new recipes and an occasional email into your inbox?
You can do that by signing up here for my newsletter, The Inbox Pastry Chef.
I’ll be seeing you!
Thanks for taking the time to read today. I hope you’re inspired to make some version of this fabulous truffle cake.
Have a lovely day.
Baishakhi says
It looks delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.