Orange and Chocolate for me is kind of like how I feel about not-famous comedians and their stand up routines. I’m always prepared not to like it, but then once I’m in the middle of it, I find I enjoy it and let out a little smile. This may make no sense but I was watching Comedy Central just now and deemed it a fitting orange-chocolate analogy.  

This is an orange flavored cake with chunks of chocolate inside, a orange sugar soak and a chocolate ganache on top.  Sounds pretty good, right?  It is.  It’s really moist thanks in part to the orange sugar soak on top. The orange and chocolate flavors really stand out on their own but neither one overwhelms the other. I found that taste wise I liked the cake plain without the ganache better. But the ganache does make it look beautiful (unless you have lumpy ganache like me… ahem, make sure you melt those chocolate chips all the way.)

My camera battery ran out before I got a chance to take an in-focus picture of the inside.  But what’s inside is a light colored cake with tons of chocolate chips.  Mmmm!

Random Thoughts and Specifics:  
*Microplane zesters are one of the best culinary inventions. Ever.
*Squeezing out a half cup of juice from oranges by hand is a chore.  Need a juicer on my Xmas list.
*I baked in two miniature loaf pans instead of using mini bundt pans.
*They took about 47 minutes to be done all the way.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was good. I went to my Aunt Donna’s house and ate way too much. My boyfriend came back from St. Louis late last night just in time for my 31st Birthday tomorrow. I just got done crying over 30 and now 31 is here. No fair!

Ina Garten’s Mini Orange Chocolate Chunk Cake
Ingredients
1/4 pound unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1/8 cup grated orange zest (2 large oranges)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 tablespoon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3 ounces buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup good semisweet chocolate chunks
For the syrup:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
For the ganache:
4 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon instant coffee granules
Directions!

Thanks to Lisa of Lime In The Coconut for choosing this as the second November Bonus Recipe for the Barefoot Bloggers. Lisa got to choose a Bonus Recipe for designing the winning logo for the BB group:

Great job, Lisa!