Chocolate Orange Slice.  Another one of those classic combinations. Often found together in cakes and biscuits (I’m not going to start a debate on whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit, so let’s just leave it there…) and also in that traditional Christmas treat – the Chocolate Orange!

This no-bake traybake brings together a classic chocolate fridge cake or tiffin (or whatever you choose to call it) with a smooth orange buttercream. Using cocoa powder makes the biscuit layer dark and chocolatey, but then the orange buttercream balances it out nicely. And then you’re left with, well…a few crumbs, considering the speed at which these disappeared in our house!

This is such a straightforward recipe. You measure, zest, juice, crush, melt and mix and then layer the resulting mixes into a loaf tin. You could probably even do all the melting work in a microwave, so you didn’t need to dirty a saucepan, but due to the lack of microwave in my kitchen, I can’t test this out for you. I know, no microwave! I have space for one after our kitchen renovation two years ago, but still haven’t got around to buying one. And, you know what? I don’t miss it. Until I start to wonder if this traybake would be easy to make in a microwave and don’t have the equipment to test my theory!

Anyway, to get back to the traybake, I used two mini loaf tins for my Chocolate Orange Slice. The recipe says to use a 1lb loaf tin, but I wanted to make the slices a little smaller. Use whatever tin you have, but for purely aesthetic reasons, I prefer a tin that will give you three biscuit layers and two buttercream!

Ingredients

Orange Buttercream Layer

2oz/55g/4 tbsp butter

1 orange, for zest and 2 tbsp juice

10oz/300g/2½ cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)

Biscuit Layer

4oz/110g/1 stick butter

6 tbsp cocoa powder

6 tbsp golden syrup

1 packet (7oz/200g) plain biscuits/cookies

Method

1.  Line the base and sides of a 1lb loaf tin (or two mini loaf tins).

2.  Zest and juice the orange and place the zest, 2 tbsp juice and the butter in a saucepan. Heat gently until the butter has melted then remove from heat.

And try not to spill the icing sugar everywhere like I did!

3.  Sieve the icing sugar and stir into the orange butter mixture until smooth.

4.  Then place the syrup, cocoa powder and butter into a saucepan. Heat gently until the butter has melted, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Syrup, butter and cocoa powder. Yum!

5.  Crush the biscuits/cookies lightly. I used Goya Maria cookies, but Rich Tea or even Digestives/Graham Crackers would work well here. You want to have a good mix of fine crumbs and chunkier pieces. Stir the biscuits into the chocolate mixture until evenly coated.

6.  Press one third of the chocolate mixture firmly into the base of the loaf tin. Then spread half the buttercream over the biscuit base. Repeat with another layer of biscuits and remaining buttercream. Finally top with the last third of the biscuit mixture and press down firmly.

7.  Cover the tin with some foil. Place in the fridge and leave for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

8. Remove from tin, slice and enjoy!

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