Chocolate Orange Swirl Bundt

Chocolate and orange is just one of those things - in general, you either love it or hate it. I went from the latter to the former (and am now almost mildly obsessed!).

There's just something about the brightness of orange combined with the richness of chocolate that makes the combination, well, impeccable, really. Yeah, okay, this is my twenty-year-old self talking. Fifteen-year-old Tanvi would tell you otherwise. But trust me.

Let's just look at how pretty this cake is. Swirls just have a soft spot in my heart. And do you see how nicely swirled the swirl is? #swirlfreakhere. I'll teach you a tip (#1): the way to get the swirls all stripey and perfect is to use a technique used to make "zebra swirls". Here's the low down. Once you have the two different batters - chocolate and orange - use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to pour two spoonfuls of orange mixture into the bundt pan. Next alternate and pour one spoonful of chocolate mixture on top of the orange mixture. Continue to alternate between orange and chocolate layers until bundt pan is filled, pouring each next layer directly on top of the previous and letting the batter spread in the pan itself.

The cake is moist, soft and has the perfect amount of crumb. It looks gorgeous both because of the swirls and the bundt shape. Tip #2 of this post: bundt pans are your secret to making any cake dessert- and crowd-worthy. They don't require frosting, a streusel topping or anything fancy. A simple dusting of powdered sugar will do the trick.

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3/4 cup unrefined sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup coconut oil, softened
3/4 cup plain yogurt
5 tsp orange juice
4 tsp freshly grated orange zest
4 tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk, divided

Instructions

Lightly grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside. Preheat your oven to 175°C.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat coconut oil and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition.

Add the half the mixed dry ingredients and half the yogurt to the beaten butter mixture and use a large spoon to mix until just combined. Repeat again, using the remainder of the dry mixture and the yogurt. 

Divide the mixture into a 60:40 split.

Mix the cocoa powder into the milk and pour this mixture into the 40% split part. Gently mix until just combined.

Fold the orange rind and orange juice into the other split (60% one).

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt tin using the zebra swirl method described above. Alternatively, spoon the orange and chocolate batters alternately into the pan and use the normal swirling method of running the back of a spoon or knife to through the batter.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until nicely risen and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then run a knife gently around the edges and tip the cake over into a plate.

Enjoy!