Double Chocolate-Orange Torte

Anyone following me on twitter may have seen the picture of the quite yummy-looking chocolate orange cake I made last week for Shabbat. As promised, I'm posting the recipe here.

Double Chocolate-Orange Torte

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

.5 tsp baking soda

.5 tsp salt

.5 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar
4 eggs

2 Tbs. orange liqueur (like cointreau; you can probably substitute OJ)

1/2 cup water

1 Tbs finely shredded orange peel

1 Tbs orange liqueur

1 Tbs orange juice
1/2 cup orange marmalade

Chocolate Icing & Chocolate Curls

1/3 cup whipping cream (like Rich's Whip)
1 Tbs light-colored corn syrup

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped OR 1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces (ie chocolate chips)

Bar of Semisweet Chocolate for chocolate curls

1. Grease and flour an 8x8x2 inch baking pan (square or round, your choice); set aside. In a heavy saucepan place chopped unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate just starts to melt. Remove from heat. Stir until smooth; cool. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar; beat until well combined. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Beat in chocolate and the 2 Tbs liqueur. Add flour mixture and water alternately to egg mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Stir in orange peel. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake at 350 about 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool cake on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen edges of cake with a spatula. Invert onto wire rack. Remove the pan. Cool cake thoroughly on wire rack.
4. Combine the 1 Tbs liqueur and orange juice. Split cake in half horizontally (if you don't know how to do this, you can google for instructions/video). Sprinkle each cut side with half of the liqueur mixture. Place bottom half of cake, cut side up, on a platter; spread the marmalade evenly on top. Top with remaining cake layer, cut side down.
5. Prepare Chocolate icing: In a heavy small saucepan combine whipping cream and corn syrup. Bring just to boiling, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in 6 oz (or 1 cup) semisweet chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Cool to room temperature. Stir before using.
6. Frost the cake with icing. Decorate sides OR top with chocolate curls pressed gently into icing.

To make chocolate curls: take the bar of chocolate and your vegetable peeler, and peel chocolate curls off of it. If they are too fragile to pick up, you can refrigerate them until they are firmer before pressing gently into frosting.

Note: You could also easily substitute the orange flavor with another flavor such as raspberry; just replace the liqueur with raspberry liqueur and use seedless raspberry preserves.