I remember when I was little, my parents had a friend from London who had moved to Kuwait and I used to call this family friend "Uncle", as you commonly do in Asian cultures (other than eat biryani *cough*). This London-uncle was very dapper - he'd eat with a knife and fork, his wife (London-aunty) would make roast turkey for Christmas, and every time they'd come back from a visit to London they'd get me presents from BHS and M&S and I'd be so chuffed.

The Gulf War happened and our families got scattered around the world - London-uncle went back to London and we'd moved to India briefly before returning to Kuwait after the invasion. Of course, in comparison to those who lost their loved ones we were incredibly lucky, and I was too young to properly process what was going on whilst my parents sheltered me. But it's weird to think about what my parents went through - losing everything they had owned, their life's savings wiped including my sister's college funds, and all the sentimental stuff like our baby photos etc looted and pillaged. And then starting from scratch, with nothing to their names, all over again, but this time with my sister and I as baggage. I don't think I've ever given them proper credit for doing what they'd done for us. 

Anyway, the reason I'm setting a sombre scene is because once we had moved back to Kuwait, life started becoming more and more 'normal' - I went back to my school, had all my favourite foods and snacks again (KDD chocolate milk and pufak #ifyouknowyouknow)...and slowly our old friends started moving back too...including London-uncle who, would you believe it, brought us gifts from BHS and M&S!

But the gift I actually clearly remember was this beautifully boxed and wrapped chocolate orange. It was SO freakin' cool and novel, an actual orange shaped chocolate, with segments that came apart once you tapped it against a surface - my mind was SO blown. And it tasted like the most delicious chocolate I had ever had. My mom made me keep it in the fridge and rationed it, one segment a week FFS. 

It's taken me a while to create a chocolate orange cake for Anges but I think I've done my memory justice here with our Chocolate Orange Drip cake:

Layers of chocolate orange sponge cake with chocolate orange Swiss meringue buttercream, a glossy AF chocolate drip and heaped with my coveted Terry's chocolate orange segments and Jaffa cakes! I don't think there is a chocolate-orange-ier cake.

We've also got a baby sister version of it - it's less sassy and a lot simpler but still gets you the choccie-orange hit (whilst being lighter on the budget too!).

If you'd like to make a chocolate orange drip cake yourself, head on over to my recipe here: Chocolate Orange Drip Cake Recipe - your friends and fam will be SUPER impressed and won't believe it's home-made!

Lots of love,

Reshmi xoxo