my mom turns 50 on the 30th so i took this opportunity to make her a cake, and this is probably also one of the rare gateaux and entremets that i'm making these days. planning started some days back coz i wanted something that would be well received, so exotic flavors like cassis or ispahan was totally out. i decided on this, the orange chocolate cake and began making the chocolate curl decor and orange seches (thinly sliced oranges that hv been soaked in a sugar syrup overnight and then oven-dried on very low heat for 2 hrs) a day before.

orange chocolate cake - cut. components are biscuit sacher sponge, orange choc mousse, orange cremeux, glacage choc noir & orange seches. i took 4 hours to make this and all it take was under 5 mins for the family to finish it! but it was definitely worth the effort and i'm so glad the cake is well received. once again, using premium ingredients is very important and i used valrhona 55% equatoriale chocolate, grated zest of at least 5 oranges (for a tiny 14cm cake) and a generous dose of grand marnier soaking syrup for the sponge so you can imagine the strong lovely aroma of orange.

looking forward to bake for special ocassions again! thats the only way i can steal a tiny little slice and yet satisfy my urge to bake :p