Easy, (almost) one-bowl chocolate orange cake

This is a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks - "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson.

It's one of my favorites for a few reasons. One, I love to bake, so any cookbook devoted to mostly that is already on my good side. Two, a lot of the recipes are very, very good (duh, that's sort of a no-brainer requirement). But its most endearing quality is the conversational, british-y way that Nigella writes her recipes and intros. It is fun to read in and of itself.

Anyway - so I decided to try a recipe that I haven't made yet, and I picked this one, "Pantry Shelf Chocolate-Orange Cake," because it is quick and easy, and I had all of the ingredients on hand. You know how everyone loves orange marmalade? Yeah, I don't either. But, I swear, this recipe is a good reason to go buy some.

This recipe is also awesome because you can pretty much do it all in one bowl. I say "pretty much" because you are supposed to add the eggs already beaten, which requires another bowl. But, I suppose you could skip that and just beat the eggs once you've added them to the rest of the ingredients.

Melt some butter and bittersweet chocolate in a big bowl in the microwave. I use pretty dark chocolate (like 85%) for a good, dark chocolate flavor.

Then go ahead and add marmalade, two beaten eggs, sugar, and salt. Mix it all up!
Then stir in the flour a little at a time. This recipe (and most of the recipes in this cookbook) calls for self-rising cake flour. I had cake flour, and self-rising flour, but not self-rising cake flour, so I improvised. Self-rising flour is just regular flour with baking powder and salt added in, so I just did the adding myself. Too easy.

Pour it in a springform pan that's been buttered and floured, and there you have it! Now lick the bowl, because the batter is really good. (Mom, you won't get salmonella, I promise.)

Pop it in the oven....

And remove 40-50 minutes later. The recipe says 50 minutes, I took it out a little after 40, and could have taken it out a few minutes earlier. There's nothing worse than dry cake.

All done. While it's a great twist on plain chocolate cake, it is pretty simple-looking, so you might want to enhance its looks with some powdered sugar design.

To do so, cut out some paper in the general shape and size of your cake. Pick out a stencil or cookie cutter and trace your design.

Cut it out and place on your cake. Sift some powdered sugar over. If you want to add more shapes, just move the design around and sprinkle some more.

And you end up with a pretty design on top! This was my first attempt at this, but it turned out OK, I think.

Like I said, it is a great-tasting, simple cake, made even better with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. The best part is, it's easy and quick enough to throw together on a weeknight.

If you're still not sold on the marmalade, the recipe suggests you could try apricot or plum preserves. I bet cherry would be yummy, too. Happy baking :-)

(Of course, if you actually want to make this, just ask me for the whole recipe and I'll be happy to send it to you!)