Chocolate Pound Cake with Orange Glaze (Florida)

This recipe came from a magnificent orange grove in Central Florida where the cake is a specialty of the house. When we visited there, large trays of the sliced cake were served along with extra-tall glasses of ice-cold, sweet and tart just-squeezed orange juice. The cake, made with whipped cream instead of butter, is a deliciously plain, moist, coal-black loaf flavoured with orange zest and steeped in orange juice after it is baked. The recipe may easily be doubled and baked in two pans.

Chocolate Cake:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour, unbleached, sifted
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. sea salt
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process
1 cup Monk Fruit Sweetener with Erythritol (Granular)
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 large orange, freshly zested, finely grated

Orange Glaze:
⅓ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed
3 Tbsp. Monk Fruit Sweetener with Erythritol (Granular)

Preheat an oven to 350°F (180°C/160°C fan, Gas Mark 4). Adjust an oven rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven. You will need a loaf pan measuring about 8½x4½x2¾", or one with about a 6 cup capacity. Butter the pan and dust it all over lightly with fine, dry bread crumbs, shake out excess crumbs and set the pan aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, cocoa and sugar and set aside.

Beat the cream and vanilla in the small bowl of an electric mixer until the cream holds a definite shape. On low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula and beating only until the egg is incorporated after each addition. (The eggs will thin the cream slightly.)

Transfer to the large bowl of the mixer and gradually, on low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients, scraping the bowl and beating only until smooth. Remove from the mixer and stir in the grated zest. That's all there is to it.

Turn the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for about 1 hour and 5 minutes, until the top springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip.

For the Orange Glaze:
As soon as the cake goes into the oven, mix the orange juice with the sugar and let it stand while the cake is baking.

After you remove the cake from the oven, let it cool for 5 minutes. Then, a little at a time, brush the orange juice/sugar mixture all over the cake; encourage most of it to run down the sides between the cake and the pan, but thoroughly wet the top also. The cake will absorb it all.

Let the cake stand in the pan until it is completely cool. Then cover the pan loosely with a piece of wax paper. Invert the cake into the palm of your hand - easy does it - remove the pan, cover the cake with a rack and invert again, leaving the cake right side up.