Chocolate Orange Ginger Cake

HOW TO MAKE A CHOCOLATE ORANGE GINGER CAKE

With a cake mix, fresh ginger, and real oranges

Ingredients:

• A chocolate cake mix (I prefer ones with pudding in the mix)
• Eggs (according to the box mix)
• 3 Medium Oranges
• Orange Juice (optional)
• Whole Milk
• 1/2 Cup of Butter
• Ginger Root

Ganache

• A 10 ounce bag of dark chocolate chips
• 2 Tbs of butter
• 1/3 cup of whole milk
• Note: instead of butter and whole milk, cream can be used, but I didn't have it

Directions:

1. Preheat oven according to box mix.
2. Melt a stick of butter in a large mug in the microwave
3. Grate in orange zest
4. Peel a leg of the ginger root
1. I kept it attached to the whole for a handle
5. Grate in fresh ginger root to taste 
1. I did most of a leg of the root
6. Stir butter mixture
7. In a mixing bowl crack in the eggs
8. Beat them with a fork.
9. Add in chocolate cake mix
10. Peel orange
11. Puree orange in a blender with a bit of liquid (milk or OJ)
12. Make sure the pureed orange is smooth
13. Measure out the orange liquid equal to the water the cake mix asks for
1. If your a little short supplement with OJ or milk
14. Dump orange juice into the mixing bowl stir
15. Add in melted butter
16. Stir everything until it's smooth
17. Pour the the batter into two round pans
1. Confession I have glass pie tins I use because I don't own cake pans
18. Bake cake according to box directions or until a toothpick comes out clean in the center
    
19. Peel an orange
1. Set the orange on it's side so top and bottom are horizontal of the cutting board
2. Slice the orange
1. It will look a little like flowers
3. Put orange slices on a paper towel
20. Let cakes cool completely
21. Remove cakes from their pan

When cakes are cool, runs a spatula around the edges and dump onto wax paper

Make Ganache

1. Put water in the bottom pan of the double boiler
1. I did't own a double boiler for a very long time and used the microwave in small increments instead and it worked fine.
2. Put 1/3 milk and 2 tbs of butter in the top boiler
   
3. On medium heat, heat the milk and butter until they are warm
1. Water will be boiling in the bottom pan
4. Turn off the heat
5. Dump the chocolate chips bag into the top boiler
6. Whisk until chocolate is melted and smooth
1. It will look awful in the beginning but use that whisk
2. If it looks too thick add a bit more milk

Build Cake

1. Spread half the ganache on a cake
2. Layer orange slices on top
3. Put the second cake on top
1. The layer of cake that is directly against the orange slices will absorb some of moisture which will help keep the thing together 
2. Truly I wanted to make an orange jam or marmalade but ran out of time
4. Spread the rest of the ganache on top
5. Grate a bit more ginger on top
6. Right before serving decorate with orange slices according to your aesthetic

This recipe was made up as quickly as possible in the moment. I'm not a huge orange chocolate fan. But the kick of the ginger added a different dimension to the flavor profile, that had me tasting a couple giant spoonfuls of the batter. 

I had a student request the flavors for his birthday, and I also had somewhere to be that night.  Which would have worked fine, but there was an accident on the 101 and another accident on the 170 making my drive home take a lot longer. Creating a tiny space of time to make this a thing. But it also means I just got it done, and didn't worry about it very much.You can add to or change the recipe if you do let me know in the comments... :)