Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Slices

A little while ago I shared with you my recipe for candied orange slices. They are brilliant for decorating orange and citrus cakes with, but they also make sweet treats when they’re dipped in chocolate. My chocolate dipped candied orange slices are brilliant bagged up and given as gifts. They’re an ideal little treat if you’ve got a glut of oranges to use up too.

I like to make a big batch of these at Christmas and give little bags of them as presents for people. They’re also a really nice treat to take away on holiday to nibble with a nice glass of good red wine in the evening.

Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Slices

Ingredients:
2 oranges, fairly finely sliced
1 mug of caster sugar
1 mug of boiling water (add more if required)
8 drops of Spice Drops Orange Zest Extract
150g good quality dark chocolate

Method:
In a sauté pan gently warm the water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Add your Spice Drops Orange Zest Extract and put your slices of orange in the pan.

Gently poach the orange slices for around an hour or so with the lid off the pan. Make sure you turn them over every 15 minutes or so. You want the oranges to go translucent; once they do, they’re ready.

Carefully lay your orange slices on a cooling rack (make sure you put some paper towel underneath to catch any drips) and leave to cool and solidify overnight.

Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Slices

When the candied oranges have dried and set, melt your chocolate in a bain marie (a glass bowl over a saucepan with an inch or so of water underneath, make sure the water doesn’t touch the glass bowl) until it’s smooth and silky. Dip your slices in the melted chocolate and leave to set for an hour or so. Enjoy with a cup of good coffee.

If you want to really boost the orange flavour in this treat, add around 4 drops of Spice Drops Orange Zest Extract to the chocolate as you melt it.

Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Candied Orange Slices

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake – a teatime treat!

Lemon and poppy seed cake is such a classic and one of my favourite bakes. It’s a cake that’s pretty easy to make and with a lovely drizzle icing, it always looks so homely and delicious. With a celebration in mind I decided to turn a cheery bag of juicy oranges into something a little bit special. It’s a little twist on the original, topped with candied oranges and bursting with sweet citrus flavours – my Orange Poppy Seed Cake is a teatime showstopper!

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake for Mother's Day

This Orange Poppy Seed Cake is made with Orange Zest Spice Drops which add a lovely freshly squeezed flavour to all kinds of cakes, bakes and savory dishes. I’d used the spice drops when I made a batch of delicious candied orange slices to decorate the cake with (you can find the recipe here) and also in the Orange Poppy Seed Cake itself.

Orange Poppy Seed Cake

Ingredients:
225g soft butter or margarine
225g caster sugar
275g self-raising flour
1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
4 eggs
4 tablespoons of milk
25g poppy seeds
12 drops of orange zest spice drops

For the drizzle icing:
225 g icing sugar
12 drops of orange zest spice drops
Tepid water, added gradually

Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180° and grease a deep 20cm cake tin. I usually put a circle of greaseproof baking paper at the bottom to help stop the cake from sticking.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Scrape into your cake tin, smooth the top and pop it in your pre-heated oven. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Poke it with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked through.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin, then turn it out put it onto your cake stand or serving dish.

Mix up your icing, drop your orange zest spice drops into the icing sugar and add the water gradually, mixing as you go until you have a drizzle icing of the right consistency – which is loose but not runny. Spread it over the top of the cake allowing some to dribble down the sides of the cake.

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake for Mother's Day Recipe: How to make Candied Orange Slices

Take your candied oranges and slice them in half, fan them around the top of the cake, gently pressing them into the drizzle icing so they stick in position. Now admire your pretty cake and serve with a lovely cup of tea!

If you enjoyed this, you might also like my awesome Turkish Delight Cake.

Recipe: Orange Poppy Seed Cake for Mother's Day

Recipe: How to make Candied Orange Slices

When I spotted a cake in a local tea shop decorated with gorgeous glistening slices of preserved orange, I knew I had to find out more. It turns out they were candied orange slices and they are ridiculously easy to make, if a little time consuming. They’re fabulous for decorating a pretty cake with or for dipping in chocolate for a little teatime treat. Plus there’s an exciting by-product to the process – more of which later!

How to make Candied Orange Slices

Ingredients:
2 oranges, fairly finely sliced
1 mug of caster sugar
1 mug of boiling water (add more if required)
8 drops of Spice Drops Orange Zest Extract

Method:
In a sauté pan, or high sided frying pan, tip in the water and sugar and heat; stirring all the time until the sugar has dissolved. Add your Spice Drops Orange Zest Extract and lay your slices of orange in the pan. If you don’t have the spice drops, you can use a couple of tablespoons of orange juice instead.

Recipe: How to make Candied Orange Slices

Gently cook the orange slices for around an hour with the lid off the pan, make sure you turn them over every so often. You’re looking for the oranges to go a little translucent, once they do, they’re ready.

Carefully lay them on a cooling rack (make sure you put a cloth or paper towel underneath to catch any drips) and leave to cool and solidify overnight. Once they’ve cooled properly, they’re ready to use however you wish.

Recipe: How to make Candied Orange Slices

If you need to candy more than two oranges, I suggest you do it in batches. If you crowd the pan, they just wont cook as well. It’s not the worst thing in the world to have a pan of delicious, citrusy oranges blipping away on the hob for an afternoon!

That exciting by-product I mentioned earlier? Save the syrup the oranges have been poached in, it’s absolutely fantastic and perfect for baking, drizzling on pancakes or using in cocktails. Waste not, want not!

Recipe: How to make Candied Orange Slices