A proper grown-up cake

                                                                     
This cake is a grown-up cake. It's super rich and chocolatey and dark and there's not a sprinkle, marshmallow or a marzipan girl in sight.

Dark Chocolate Orange Cake

• One big fat orange (about the size of your fist, or if you have unusual fists about the size of a normal-sized fist)
• 3 eggs
• 250ml sunflower oil
• 100g plain/dark chocolate melted (stick it in the microwave for a minute or so)
• 280g caster sugar
• 35g cocoa powder
• 250g self-raising flour

Pre-heat your oven to 160c (fan oven, turn it up 20c or so for a normal oven) and greese up a 9inch(ish) tin. Beat your eggs, sugar and oil till smooth then zest the orange into the mixture and squeeze in all the juice - do it over a sieve or something so you don't end up with a cake full of pips. Shove in the rest of your ingredients and mix it up really well. Pour it into the tin and pop it in the oven for around 50 mins. Let it cool completely before topping with...

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 200g dark chocolate all smashed up into bits
• 300ml double cream

Heat the cream slowly on the hob until it starts to boil - stir it the whole time or it will burn and go really gross. Pour the hot cream over the broken-up chocolate and mix really well, leave for an hour or two while it sets then spread it over the top of the cake. Grate some orange peel over the top if you want to give it some colour, you can make 'candied orange peel' by boiling sugar and water and sticking orange peel in it or something but I don't think my patience will stretch quite that far. Voila, a sophisticated caked!