Orange and Chocolate Mini Loaves

Last weekend we went to stay with our daughter and visited Bluewater shopping centre. There's a great John Lewis store there, and I love browsing in their kitchenware. A few weeks ago, Phil, from the great As Strong As Soup  blog, posted a 'financier' recipe and I hunted everywhere for my financier tin to make some, but couldn't find it, so when I saw a mini loaf one in John Lewis, I bought it. I don't think it's exactly the same size as a financier tin?
We were given a gift pack of several bars of Lindt chocolate, one of them being their Intense Orange bar, so back home I decided to make some little chocolate loaves with orange in my new tin. They're not financiers as they have no almonds in them, but they're good anyway. The original recipe made 6, so I doubled it up.
To add to the chocolate flavour I made a chocolate ganache, and found some orange and lemon jelly slices in the baking cupboard and used the orange ones to decorate the top.

Preheat oven 200C/gas 6 and grease a 6 hole financier or mini loaf tin [or you could use a 450g loaf tin - a 1lb one in old measures]

Put 110g of soft butter, 110g of caster sugar and the zest of a medium orange in a bowl and beat it till nice and fluffy. Add 2 beaten eggs a bit at a time and mix together well.  Sift 75g of sr flour and 25g of cocoa together and add to the batter. Fold in then add 2 tbspn of orange juice and mix this in.
Spoon into the tins and bake for 15-20 mins till firm to touch.
Leave in the tin to cool for about 10 mins then turn onto a wire rack.
To make the ganache, put 50g of orange chocolate and 3 tbspn of double cream in a bowl over simmering water and melt gently, and stir together till nice and glossy [use a wooden spoon].
Spoon some ganache over each mini loaf and decorate with an orange slice.

You get a double hit of chocolate with the cocoa and the orange chocolate topping. The cake has a good soft texture, just the right amount of orange flavour, and is just the right size for an afternoon treat.