Method
Set oven to 160ºc. Grease and line two
8in round sandwich tins and set aside.
Cream half of the light brown sugar
with the butter and whip until light
and fluffy, then add the four eggs and
vanilla essence.
Melt the dark chocolate buttons with
the other half of the sugar and the milk
in a saucepan – don’t let it boil. Sieve
together the remaining dry ingredients.
Add the sieved dry ingredients to the
butter, sugar and egg mixture and blend
well, then slowly pour in the melted
chocolate mixture. This should give you
a nice runny chocolate batter.
Pour into your two tins, in equal
amounts. Bake in the oven for about 40
minutes – check the sponges after 30
minutes. The sponges will be done when
they have shrunk away from the sides of
the tins slightly and a skewer comes out
cleanly from the centre of the sponge.
When baked, remove from the oven,
stand on a cooling rack and leave to
cool in the tins.
While the sponges are cooling, whisk
the unsalted butter until light and fluffy,
then add the icing sugar and whisk
that in too to form the base of your
buttercream frosting.
Grate the zest of one orange into the
frosting and add the orange oil. Gently
melt your white chocolate buttons either
in a bowl over some boiling water (never
let the water/steam make contact with
the chocolate, they really don’t like each
other!) or gently melt the chocolate
in a plastic bowl in the microwave in
20-second bursts, stirring between each
burst to ensure that the chocolate does
not `catch` and burn in the centre. Once
the chocolate is melted (it doesn’t need
to be hot, just tepid) stir it in to your
buttercream and taste – if you prefer a
more orange flavour, add more zest and
orange oil.
When the sponges are cool, level the
tops. Place one sponge on your base/
plate and add a good layer of the
buttercream mixture, then place the
other sponge (with trimmed surface face
down) on to the bottom cake (so you
end up with the base of a sponge as
the t