Mocha Orange Cake

What's better than a chocolate orange cake?  A mocha orange cake of course!
Super moist, rich and chocolatey with an orangey twang and a subtle kick of espresso marks this cake pretty high up in the BakeAbella cake charts.  In fact, the amount of amazing feedback I have had regarding this cake has been utterly crazy!  Even the remains of the ganache failed to survive longer than a few hours - hey mum ;)
There are no doubts that this cake will be gracing my friends and family's mouths again rather soon.  It is honestly way too delicious to be a one off.

Ingredients
For the cake: 200g unsalted butter 25g cocoa powder 200g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces 3 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp of boiling water 180g light brown muscovado sugar 180g caster sugar 3 eggs 3tbsp single cream 1 orange, zest and juice 180g self raising flour
For the ganache: 1 orange 200g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces 200ml double cream 2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
For the buttercream: 275g icing sugar 230g unsalted butter, softened 2 orange, zest and 2 tbsp juice 1 1/2 tsp orange blossom water
For decoration: Orange peel 45g caster sugar 1 tbsp orange juice
Making the cake: 1.  Preheat oven to 180C/160C for fan assisted ovens.  Grease and line 3 x 8 inch sandwich tins. 2. Put the butter, chocolate, cocoa and the dissolved coffee into a bowl and set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted.   3. Remove from the heat and add in the sugars, mix until well combined. 4. In a separate bowl, combine the eggs, cream, orange zest and juice and then add to the chocolate mixture. 5. Fold in the flour along with a pinch of salt, then divide into the 3 tins. 6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until firm to touch.  7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack 10 minutes.  Remove from tins and peel off parchment.

Making the ganache: 1. Using a vegetable peeler, pare long ribbons of zest from the orange and leave to one side. 2. Squeeze the juice from the orange into a bowl alongside the chocolate, cream, dissolved coffee and a pinch of salt. 3. Set the bowl over a pan of water on a low-medium heat until melted, then leave to chill in the fridge for about hour or until it is thick enough to spread.
Making the buttercream: Simply beat all the ingredient together until pale, light and fluffy!
Make the decoration: 1. Put the sugar and orange juice into a heavy-based saucepan. 2. Add the pared peel and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the peel starts to caramelise.   3. Remove from the pan and leave to set on a sheet of baking parchment.
To assemble: 1. With a sharp knife, take off the top of each layer of sponge. 2. Add a generous amount of buttercream to the first layer and sandwich another sponge on top.  Repeat with the remaining buttercream and sponge. 3. Cover the whole cake with ganache and then decorate with the caramelised peel. 4. Pop in the fridge and leave to chill before cutting.
Please have a go at baking this, you will not be disappointed!