Thursday, September 12, 2013

Chocolate Cream Pound Cake : Bake-Along #51

Time for our Bake-Along #51, Chocolate Cream Pound Cake, chosen by my baking buddy, Lena from Frozen Wings.



A simple chocolate cake using some heavy cream as one of its ingredients. The heavy cream is heated up until just boiling and it is poured over the sifted cocoa powder to make a paste. Let it cool and use it for the cake batter as per the recipe below. The only changes I made was to reduce the amount of sugar by half! And the sweetness is just right. 

Overall, this is a simple and very nice cake, nothing exceptional, the kind of cake that is light enough and great for snacking anytime of the day. It has a moist, soft and tender texture and would go great with either tea, coffee or even a glass of milk. 


Chocolate Cream Pound Cake
(adapted from "Cake Keeper Cakes", Lauren Chattman)
Serves 8 to 10
6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar (I use 3/4 cup)
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

  1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9-inch by 5-inch loaf pan and dust with flour.
  2. Sift the cocoa powder through a fine strainer and into a heatproof bowl. Place the cream in a microwave-safe measuring cup and heat until just boiling, 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on the power of your microwave. Pour the hot cream over the cocoa and stir and mash with a spoon to make a thick paste. Set aside to cool.
  3. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
  4. Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Beat in the cocoa powder paste until smooth.
  5. With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
  6. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. After the last addition, mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.
  7. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack, and then turn it right side up on a rack to cool completely. Slice and seve.
  8. Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.
#91/100

To join our blog hop, bake this cake and link your post to our Bake-Along linky.
Please visit my baking buddies, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, and all our friends who has baked along with us in the linky below :

For our next Bake-Along, we will be baking based on a theme where our theme is "Hokkaido Milk Bread". Bake any Hokkaido Milk Bread of your choice and link your post to the our blog-hop linky which will start on  25th September right up to 4th October. Everyone is welcome! 


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A friendly reminder when linking to our blog hop :
1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (JoyceLena or Zoe)
2. Please link only new and current post, related to the current bake or theme provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.
3. Feel free to display our Bake-Along badge in your post.



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23 comments:

  1. Delicious and lovely looking cake. Wonderfully prepared.
    Deepa

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  2. Delicious Joyce, really delicious!

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  3. Chocolate cake can't disappoint us ! Never !

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  4. Love chocolate , drooling over your yummy cake . :)

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  5. Hi Joyce,

    You know... As usual, the chocolate-loving me and my family will say HURRAY to this bake!!! I see exactly everything that Lauren Chattman described in this cake. Indeed crumbly but surprisingly delicious! Yours seems moister than mine...

    Zoe

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  6. good morning joyce, i made this twice. your cake looks just like my first loaf. You cut the sugar by half? i cut even more the first time i made it..hehe..and probably perhaps that resulted in a drier cake. Then i just be a good girl the second time and tried not reducing that much :)

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  7. Looking at your cake helped me made up my mind to bake this cake....will give it a try hopefully before this even expired:P

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  8. Hi Joyce, this cake looks so moist and rich. How I wish I can just a bite of it now.

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  9. A glass of cold milk and a nice piece of that chocolate cake would put me in heaven right about now, Joyce.

    Thank you so much for sharing...

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  10. Your cake looks good. Dark chocolate colour and fine texture.

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  11. your cake reminds me of sara lee pound cake... sara lee.... 谢谢你

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  12. Your cake looks great with a perfect crumb texture!

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  13. Yes this definitely goes well with a glass of milk. Your cake has such a beautiful texture.

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  14. Joyce, I've brought a pot of tea with me, so shall we start out tea session now?

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  15. Hi Joyce, your cake looks delicious! Thank you for choosing this cake as the bake along!

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  16. Gosh, your choco cake looks so moist and inviting ... must grab a piece for breakfast!

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  17. So so moist and smooth! I totally love the texture.

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  18. This cake looks so moist! I always have a hard time with chocolate cakes. They tend to fall apart on me. This one looks perfect! Thank you for sharing it!

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  19. p.s I noticed you have used Dutch processed cocoa powder, which means it is treated with an alkali to neutralize its acids..as it is neutral and does not react with baking soda. I wonder if I could just skip it...




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    1. Hi Angie,
      I have used Van Houten cocoa powder and yes I did notice the usage of baking soda for this recipe, since it is a small amount, I used it anyway. The cake turned out soft and it rises well too. Sometimes I really do not understand the science behind it all! Perhaps it very much depend on how much acidic is left in the cocoa powder after being treated. But in this case, it works with the baking soda. Zoe has used Callebaut cocoa powder and replaced the soda with baking powder instead, and it works too. If you do not want to take chances with the baking soda, perhaps you could replace with baking powder instead.

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  20. Joyce, this chocolate cakes sounds so easy to make!

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