For my second Weather Food Cast on LMFM’s Late Lunch with Gerry Kelly, I made a really simple and tasty Chicken & Orange Tray Bake and a super-light Chocolate & Orange “Web” Cake, perfect for getting the kids involved!  Listen to the podcast here

Chicken Tray Bake with Green Salad

Serves 4

8 Chicken pieces, a mixture of thighs, drumsticks and skin-on breast on the bone.

Potatoes, washed and cut into 1” chunks

Red Onion, peeled and cut into wedges

1 Orange, cut into wedges

8 Garlic cloves peeled but left whole

1 Courgette sliced into 2” chunks

1 Red or Yellow Pepper, sliced into 2” chunks

A few cherry tomatoes

Woody herbs such as rosemary, thyme, oregano. Fresh is best but dried can also be used.

Olive oil to drizzle

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200˚C, 180˚C Fan, Gas Mark 5

Place the chicken pieces on a large roasting dish and add all the other ingredients to the dish. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Roast for 30 mins, checking and stirring every 10 mins or so to ensure the top ingredients don’t burn.

Serve with a simple green salad

French Dressing

2 parts Olive Oil to 1 part Cider Vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 clove of garlic, peeled and bashed with the back of a knife

Salt & Pepper

Combine all ingredients in a jar and shake well to combine

Chocolate & Orange “Web” Cake

Ingredients:

50g cocoa powder

90ml boiling water

3 eggs

4 tbsp milk

100ml sunflower oil

175g self-raising flour, sifted

1 rounded tsp baking powder, sifted into the flour

250g caster sugar

½ tsp orange blossom water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180˚C, Fan 160˚C and line a 9” cake tin.

Place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined

Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 mins

When the cake has totally cooled, cut it in half widthways.

Spread over one layer of the filling below on the cake. Place the other layer on top.

For the Frosting:

100g cream cheese

50g butter

1 orange, zested & juiced

1 tsp vanilla extract

65g icing sugar

For the frosting, beat the cheese and butter until soft and smooth. Add in the vanilla, a tablespoon of the orange juice and zest and sift in the sugar, and beat for a few moments until the mixture is completely smooth.

Decoration:

100g Dark chocolate

15g White Chocolate

Melt 100g of dark chocolate. Pour over the cake evenly. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes. In the meantime, melt the white chocolate and place in a piping bag with a very small hole (or use a small freezer bag and cut the hole in the corner) Draw a large circle around the perimeter of the cake, then draw another smaller circle about a centimeter in and another and so forth until you reach the centre.

Place a sharp point such as a skewer or knife in the centre of the cake and draw it through the white chocolate until you reach the edge.

Repeat at regular intervals.