Chocolate, Orange and Mulled Wine

2025-12-12

My dad's turning 74 soon — happy birthday! 🎉

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Now, according to my big brother, this one's “my best one yet.” Am I going to argue with that? Easy answer: no. This cake is f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c. And since my dad went back for seconds, I’d definitely call that a win 🙌

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So what makes this chocolate, orange, and mulled wine cake so special? Let’s line up the reasons 😊

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First of all, the flavours work beautifully together. Orange and chocolate are already a well-loved pairing and a classic around Christmas. Add mulled, spiced wine into the mix and it just works. I don’t drink, and for all the kids out there — the mulled wine ganache is non-alcoholic. All three flavours together? Brilliant.

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Second, the crunch. Adding a layer of sugar-almond crunch on top of the milk chocolate ganache turned out to be a very good idea. Mixing textures makes the cake a little less predictable — which usually makes things a lot more enjoyable… right? Let’s go with yes 😉

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And finally, the sponge. Perfectly moist this time! I used a higher-fat yoghurt and I honestly think it made all the difference. You should definitely try it.

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This cake brought me a bit of extra joy. Not only because I made it for my dad — who loves cake — but also because I got to spend extra time on the decorations. The roses are made from crêpe paper and, yes, they took a while… but they’ve turned out to be a new and very welcome creative outlet for me!

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See you soon —
and enjoy the eye candy!