Deep Chocolate Pound Cake

Deep Chocolate Pound Cake

courtesy from Bon Appetit Desserts Cookbook, page 44 or refer Bon Appetit.com

Who don't love chocolate please raise up your leg please. Hahaha... I'm sure no one would do that. Anyway, I'm just joking. Not because legs are heavier to lift up but I'm sure 9 out of 10 will never say no to chocolate.

I often heard about pound cake from TV channels - Astro 703, 707 & 727. Especially the The Cake Boss series. Buddy always use pound cake for his wedding cake design. Pound cake traditionally believes to have the sufficient weight to hold the cake height compare other types of cake which is soft and fluffy. Usually, pound cake will be the base of any decoration cake.

This time, Free and Easy Bake-Along event #42 challenge is to bake Deep Chocolate Pound cake. The name is heavenly delicious. This is my first time baking a pound cake, this is not the ordinary one but is deep chocolate pound cake. For me it is very tricky to bake one. Initially, pound cake itself is heavy and can be dense too. Adding chocolate in it, will make the cake even more dense and compact.

So, this round I follow the recipe carefully and hope my chocolate pound cake turn out nicely. Let's see.....

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream (I add UHT heavy cream + lemon juice)
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons boiling water
3/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F - 180 Degrees. Butter and flour 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, tapping out any excess flour.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl.  Whisk sour cream and milk in a small bowl.
3. Sift cocoa powder into another small bowl. Whisk honey and 2 tablespoons boiling water until smooth. Cool completely.
4. Using a electric mixer to beat sugar and butter in another medium bowl until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in 1 egg at a time, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl.
5. Beat in vanilla, add cocoa powder and stir until smooth.
6. Beat in flour mixture alternately with sour cream mixture in 2 additions each until just blended.
7. Stir in chocolate chips.
8. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 8 minutes. (Mine I baked for 1 hour only because I separate my batter into 2 small square tray)

Took it out from the oven and rest for a while before cutting it. My mum "pinjam" ~ borrowed my loaf pan, so I get another 2 small ordinary tray to bake it. Although the cake tray is slightly wider, but the cake height is still bearable. The texture is moist and have a very deep chocolate smell. I ate 2 slices straight away. The cake is not as dense as I thought. The taste is wise and not that sweet too. Maybe because I used brown sugar. 

One chocolate recipe is actually not enough, I munch another 2 slices again. My cake didn't crack and rise that high, maybe not enough baking soda. I decided to bake this cake for my friend's daughter. She's still searching for job after she graduated. Hopefully, she gets a job after having this deep chocolate pound cake. Hehehe... Well, it is good to cheer her up right?
*Heard from my friend yesterday, that her daughter found a job in Singapore. All the best to you Ven!*

That day, I really run out of idea how to present the cake. Then, dusting icing sugar came into my mind first because the cake is not that sweet. So I decided to cut the cake into bite size pieces. The petite size. Sounds classic right? I found the petite size is a great idea if to bake this cake for any party event. It's handy, look neat and presentable too.

Here you are my classic petite size Deep Chocolate Pound Cake! I packed nicely in a box and tied with ribbon before giving it to my friend's daughter. We stay at the same "Taman" ~ in the same neighbourhood. I just drove to her house in few minutes time. Her daughter always called me Bee Kwan Jie Jie, and I told her I'm already a auntie. *_^

I'm submitting my classic petite size Deep Chocolate Pound Cake to this three pretty hostess of Free and Easy Bake-Along, they are:

Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, 

Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids and

Lena from Frozen Wings.

After this I shall blog hop over to see other bakers version. It is great being part of this event. For me, succeeded in baking is not the main objective here. But sharing, exchanging ideas and learning through experiences (even your attempt is fail) are those values we want to learn. Am I right?

Happy Baking everyone...