Chocolate Pound Cake

Had to make one today ... had this itch to make something really chocolately and after flipping through whatever recipe books I could lay my hands on, I stuck to the guaranteed recipe that I normally used.

Ingredients

250g butter (slightly soften at room temperature)

250g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

1 cup of dutch processed cocoa powder* (I'll get around to weighing it another time!)

4 eggs

2/3 to 3/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup milk

plus

2 cups of semi sweet/ bitter chocolate chips**

Method

First of all, preheat oven to 170 degree C!

1. Cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes on medium speed.

2. Add eggs one by one and beat till well incorporated. Doesn't matter if it curdles at this stage.

3. Divide flour into 2 portions. Add the first portion of flour to the butter mixture and mix on medium speed for a short burst. Scrape down the sides.

4. Add milk and mix on medium speed for a short burst. Scrape down.

5. Add cocoa powder and use the spatula to fold into the mixture. Mix on high speed for a short burst.

6. Add sour cream and mix on high speed for a short burst. Scrape down.

7. Add the 2nd portion of the flour. Use the spatula to fold in and mix on high speed for a short burst. Scrape down again and mix on high speed for a short burst to ensure that the mixture is well combined.

8. I used cupcake cases so there no buttering of pans involved. Fill cases to 1/2 full and push some chocolate chips to just below the surface. Smooth over the top with a little bit more cake batter. This cake will rise quite a fair bit.

9. My oven was working pretty well today or my timer is conky (my son dropped it on the floor this morning and my oven timer has since long gone to heaven) but it took about 30 minutes to finish baking. Do the skewer test if not sure. Made about 16 cupcakes (bases 2 inch wide).

Enjoy!

* Dutch processed cocoa is not the same as the hersey chocolate or other drinking chocolate.

** I am sold on couveture chocolate chips - they are just simply wonderful and I'm not even using famous brands here.