My mum has an old cookbook that she won for home economics when she was at school; Marguerite Patten’s Everyday Cookbook (now out of print). One of the first things she taught me to bake was the chocolate orange buns. A fairly simple recipe but one that I would go back to again and again because they are so yummy. It could be where my choc-orange obsession first began…

 The naughty thing I did was actually cut the recipe out of the book when I left home  and then (of course) lost it. Unable to find anyone I knew who owned the book I eventually managed to find someone who did online and they gave me the recipe (thankyou so much!). I call them “ugly buns” because people always comment on their less than attractive appearance, but that’s before they taste them and realise looks are not everything. They are quite dense and really chocolatey. The icing is normally an orange drizzle but I fancied trying an orange butter cream and it was just as good.

 Let me know if you try the recipe, I would be interested to know what others think.

 

Chocolate Orange Buns adapted from; Marguerite Patten’s Everyday Cookbook

• 4 oz butter/margarine
• 6 oz self raising flour
• 2 oz cocoa
• 4 oz sugar
• grated rind of 1 or 2 oranges
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. orange juice
• Little milk if needed to loosen mixture
  
• To Decorate
  orange icing, made from 4 oz icing sugar and 1 tbsp orange juice *

Rub the butter/margarine into flour, do this lightly as there is a fairly high percentage of butter.
Add cocoa, sugar, orange rind, egg and orange juice. Put into greased and floured patty tins, and bake for 12 mins in a hot oven, when cold, coat the top of each bun with orange icing.

makes 12-16 oven temp. gas mk. 6-7, 425-450 deg. F

* or Orange Butter cream

• 50g butter (softened)
• 100g icing sugar
• a few tsp orange juice

Combine the butter and icing sugar until creamy and smooth. Add the orange juice a tsp at a time checking for consistency in between. Ice buns.