Kiss Me Quick!

A blend of British design and American textures resulted in this
delicious mini-orange cake with dark chocolate ganache filling

When our cable TV was first hooked up in the UK, I immediately searched for cooking shows, specifically baking. I was eager to see how things were done here, whether I could bake like a native, and if it was possible to blend American and British design into a culinary love child of both.

There are some very good shows spotlighting baking in the UK, not the least of which is the Great British Bake off hosted by noted white thumbs, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. (I did not make up those names.)

 

Mini-sandwich tin with straight sides and, you
should pardon the expression, removable bottoms

One thing I noticed was the oft-used mini sandwich tin. It resembles a muffin pan but has straight sides and removable bottoms. Its most popular use seems to be the mini-Victorian Sponge cake, a little yellow cake split in half then layered with clotted cream and strawberry jam. I made a batch almost immediately and liked the clever idea of tucking the frosting inside the mini-cake. Certainly this could translate to my American recipes.

I have a great fondness for orange and chocolate together and have had some success with Cook’s Country’s “Kiss Me Cake” recipe. It’s an unbelievably moist orange sheet cake that uses all parts of the fruit: zest, juice, pith, pulp and rind. Everything but the oink. A dark chocolate blend in the middle would be - as they say here - scrummy (short for scrumptious). 

The entire orange goes into the batter - including the rind

Years ago I made a delicious ganache from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes” recipe. Since that recipe only made a dozen cupcakes, I doubled the ganache recipe here just in case. No one wants to run out of ganache. Ever.  



Making the ganache with cream so thick it's almost chewy.



The mini cakes baked up perfectly and once cooked, gladly welcomed their chocolate filling. They tasted as good as I hoped with the two flavors working together without getting into a brawl.  And since they’re just a bite of cake you can eat on the go without the fuss of a fork, I’m calling them Kiss Me Quicks.  

The little orange cakes baked up lovely. I drizzled an orange syrup on them while still hot
then sprinkled a ground walnut and cinnamon topping for added flavor and texture

My attempt at marrying two baking cultures was not discouraging.  Room for improvement? Always. Ideas for next time? I have some things knocking around. Can’t talk now. Eating.



My Kiss Me Quick