Half the Sugar Baker
Imagine if orange upside down cake had a baby with classic chocolate sheet cake. It would be this orange upside down chocolate sheet cake which is moist and flavorful. This cake looks stunning and tastes super tender and moist. Feel free to skip the oranges and just make the chocolate sheet cake!
Tips and notes:
For this cake, you will need to line the bottom of a pan with parchment paper. This is the most foolproof method, but if you don’t have parchment paper, you can grease the bottom of the pan with butter. The parchment makes sure that your cake will definitely not stick to the pan.
For the oranges, you will need to slice them into circles around 1/4 inch thick. Once you cut them into circles, you will need to trim off the peel. Before you arrange them in your pan, make sure to add melted butter and brown sugar to the parchment first. The brown sugar balances out the slight bitterness of the oranges.
The cake batter is prepared in 3 main steps – 1) mix the dry ingredients 2) mix the chocolate mixture 3) mix the wet ingredients. In the dry ingredients, the recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, but if you like baking with whole wheat flour, you can replace 3/4 cup with whole wheat. In the chocolate mixture, you will need regular cocoa powder, not dutch processed. The recipe also calls for espresso powder. This enhances the chocolate flavor, but you won’t notice it in the final cake. If you don’t have espresso, feel free to skip it. Lastly, the recipe also calls for vinegar or lemon juice. They react with the baking soda to give this cake a better rise, but you won’t taste it in the final cake. If you don’t have vinegar or lemon juice, you can skip it and increase the baking powder to 1 teaspoon.
Finally, make sure that you do not overmix the cake batter because it could lead to a tough cake, which no one wants!
Tip for flipping the cake: I like to cover the pan with a large serving plate and then quickly flip the pan and the plate over together. You might need another person to help with this. The cake should flip easily onto the plate because of the parchment paper. If you don’t have a large plate, you can use the parchment paper to lift the cake out onto a cutting board. Then place the baking pan back over the cake upside down. Quickly flip the cutting board and the pan together and the cake should land back in the pan with the orange side facing up.
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Orange Upside Down Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 3 large oranges
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter divided
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder optional
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 cup greek yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
- zest from 1 orange optional
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 9×13 inch sheet pan with parchment paper. If you don't have a sheet pan, use a casserole dish.
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and spread it over the parchment paper in the pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the melted butter and spread out evenly. Slice the oranges into 1/4 inch thick circles. Then trim off the orange peel from the edges. Arrange the orange circles in the parchment lined pan. They should cover most of the bottom, but it's ok if there are some gaps. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, add the espresso powder, cocoa powder, water, and remaining 8 tablespoon of butter. Heat over medium-low heat while whisking. Keep whisking until the cocoa powder is completely dissolved and the butter is melted. The mixture should be smooth and glossy. Remove from heat once bubbles start forming on the sides.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the greek yogurt, eggs, vanilla extract, and vinegar. Then pour the mixture into the dry ingredients. Then add the chocolate mixture from the previous step. Fold everything together using a spatula until just combined. Then add the orange zest and chopped nuts and stir until incorporated.
- Pour the cake batter over the oranges in the prepared pan. Smooth into an even layer and bake for 30-34 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out without crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Then cover the pan with a serving plate or platter and quickly flip it over so that the orange slices are on top. Peel off the parchment paper. Let cool for at least 10 more minutes. Optionally dust with powdered sugar before serving.
