Spicy cinnamon, chocolate chips and orange zest marry together to make my seriously delicious Chocolate Orange and Cinnamon Loaf Cake. The perfect, easy festive bake!
Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was busy, my family came over on Sunday and we went for a meal in town which was nice.
We had the most amazing dessert at the restaurant we went to. It was a gooey cookie in a skillet, with white and dark chocolate, salted caramel gelato and salted caramel sauce all over it. Served straight from the oven and pure heaven in every bite! I need to recreate it!
Anyway, today I’m sharing an easy festive bake with my Chocolate Orange and Cinnamon Loaf Cake.
Chocolate Orange is one of my favourite flavour combinations, they really bring out the best in each other! Add in some cinnamon and you have the most amazing loaf cake ready to be sliced and enjoyed with a cup of coffee.
I love how easy loaf cakes are to make as you just bung it in the loaf pan and bake it. You don’t even have to make a topping, you can just wait for it to cool and slice it. However, because I take photos of my food, I figure I should make it look pretty for you and give it a glaze!!
I drizzled a cinnamon glaze on top of the loaf to really ramp up the flavour and then I used little chocolate orange fudge sprinkels which I found in the supermarket last week. I knew they would come in handy sometime, so I liberally sprinkled them over this cake once I’d glazed it.
Honestly, this is the most perfect, festive bake! It would make a great Christmas breakfast, or just a treat for elevenses!
Although I’ve been creating lots of Christmas content, I am still in denial that it’s come round so fast! Anyone else?! I feel like October went pretty slow, then November was a flash and suddenly it’s December!
Have you finished your Christmas shopping? I’m so disorganised this year, normally I’m done already, but I have only got about half of my shopping so far. I’m finding it so hard to buy for certain people. It gets harder every year! All the men in my life already have everything they want/need as they just buy it!
Hubby actually found something he wanted on Black Friday and I was like “oh I’ll get that for you for Christmas” but he was like “no it’s OK, I’ll buy it for myself” then he found something else and ordered it, but after I was like “now this I AM giving you money for and getting you for Christmas!!”
I feel like I’m pretty easy to buy for because I love makeup and there’s always new makeup coming out. Hoping for divine inspiration this week when I find some time to hunt for gifts!#
Let me know if you get to try this glorious loaf cake and how you like it!
Chocolate Orange and Cinnamon Loaf Cake
Ingredients
- For the cake:
- 1 1/2 sticks (170g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) white/caster sugar
- Zest of 2 medium oranges
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/2 cups (350g) plain/all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (175g) milk chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (120ml) milk
- For the glaze (optional):
- 1/2 cup (60g) icing/powdered sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and spray a 2lb loaf tin with cooking spray. Place a strip of greaseproof paper across the loaf tin with enough overhang to lift the cake out later.
- Place the butter, sugar and orange zest into a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy. This will take around 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
- Add in the eggs, scraping down the sides as necessary, and mix until well incorporated, around 1 minute on medium speed.
- Place the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and chocolate chips into a medium sized bowl and stir until the chocolate chips are coated in flour.
- Tip the flour mixture into your egg mixture and mix on low until the mixture starts to come together, then add the milk gradually while continuing to mix. Once all the milk is added, turn the speed up to medium and mix until everything is smooth and well incorporated.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth into an even layer. Place in the oven for 60-70 minutes, until risen, golden and an inserted skewer into the centre comes out with no cake crumbs. You will get melted chocolate on the skewer, just make sure there's no cake batter on it.
- Leave to cool in the pan completely, before lifting out and transferring to a wire rack with kitchen paper underneath it.
- Make the glaze: Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, add in the cinnamon and whisk briefly to disperse. Add in milk, 1/2tbsp at a time, whisking until you have a thick, smooth mixture which ribbons when you pull the whisk out. I used 1tbsp in total.
- Drizzle/spoon the glaze over the top of the loaf cake. You can then sprinkle fudge pieces or sprinkles on top if desired. You can skip the glaze entirely if you'd rather and just serve the cake as is.
- Chocolate Orange and Cinnamon Loaf Cake will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature, for 4 days. It will store better without the glaze. You can enjoy this cake at room temperature, or heat a slice in the microwave and serve with a lump of melting butter.
Annie is a self-taught baker, recipe developer and food photographer, who has an obsession with dessert and beauty! 
