LITTLE CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKES

            What could be better than the combination of orange and chocolate?

          Little Chocolate Orange Cakes with Crystallized Orange Zest
                    adapted from Australia Vogue Entertaining, Apr/May 1992

Cakes:
• 4 tablespoons (60g) unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup (125g) sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 4 1/2 ounces (125g) bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• a scant 3 tablespoons (25g) flour, sifted
• 1 tablespoon ground almonds
• grated rind of one organic orange
• 3 eggwhites, beaten to soft peaks
Ganache:
• 3 1/2 ounces (100ml) heavy cream
• 5 1/4 ounces (150g) bittersweet chocolate
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Crystallised orange zest:
• 2 oranges
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1/2 cup sugar, additional sugar for tossing
1.  To make the cakes:  beat together the butter and sugar and gradually add the egg yolks.  Beat until the mixture is creamy, then beat in the chocolate.  Fold in the flour, almonds and orange rind.  Carefully fold in the beaten eggwhites.
2.  Spoon the mixture into nine well-buttered and floured muffin tins and bake on the middle shelf of a preheated 350˚F oven for 25 minutes.  Allow the little cakes to cool and then turn out onto a cake rack to cool completely.
3.  To make the ganache:  heat the cream, remove it from the stove, add the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted.  Beat in the butter and allow to cool to a spreading consistency.
4.  To make the crystallised orange zest:  remove the zest from the oranges with a vegetable peeler, making sure you have no white pith on the zest.  Cut the zest into strips.
5.  Place the zest in a saucepan with enough water to thoroughly cover it, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Drain and discard the water.  Repeat this entire process three more times.
6.  Place the orange juice and sugar in the saucepan with the zest and stir over medium heat to dissolve the sugar.  Simmer until the syrup has almost disappeared.  Remove the zest from the saucepan and spread out the pieces on a cooling rack in a single layer to cool.  Toss with additional sugar.
7.  Frost the cakes with the ganache and top with pieces of the crystallised orange zest.