Kirbie's Cravings

Chocolate Pound Cake

Before discovering the wonderfully moist and delicious pound cake, I thought about making a chocolate pound cake.  Since I don't normally like regular pound cake, I thought chocolate might make a pound cake more likeable, because everything tastes better with chocolate doesn't it?

I chose a recipe found on The Little Teochew.  The cake came out great. It had a surprisingly deep chocolate flavor just from using the dutch processed cocoa. This is definitely a cake I'd make again.

Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake (recipe from The Little Teochew)

- 1.5 cups (181g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup (57g) cake flour
- 1 cup (92g) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 2.25 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups (340g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2.5 cups (500g) granulated sugar (I reduced this to 2 cups)
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (242g) sour cream (or crème fraîche)

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan. Dust with flour.

2. Sift the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.

3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter at medium speed until very creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is well-blended and light, about 4 minutes. At medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

4. In a small bowl, stir the vanilla extract into the sour cream. If your mixer has a splatter shield attachment, attach it now. At the low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the sour cream mixture in 2 additions and mixing just until blended. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

5. Bake the cake for 65 to 75 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Then invert the cake onto the rack and let it cool completely.

 

Moist, Delicious Sour Cream Pound Cake

I love this pound cake.  I mentioned in my marble matcha tea cake post that I had a lot of sour cream to use up. When I think of baking with sour cream, I always think of pound cakes, which require a lot of sour cream. The only thing is, I don't like pound cake. That is, until now.

I have a serious sweet tooth, but pound cake and I have never gotten along. I look at the cake and it looks so pretty and I take a bite, and then I'm immediately put off by the extremely dense texture. If you enjoy browsing sites like foodgawker, you may have seen a beautiful sour cream bundt cake image submitted by Sweet Kat's Kitchen.  Her bundt cake looked so lovely and simple, I couldn't stop thinking about it. She claimed it was the best sour cream pound cake, and even though I usually hate pound cakes, I found myself wanting to make this.

When I eyed in the ingredients, I noticed that it called for half the flour to be cake flour. This looked promising. Cake flour cakes are usually lighter and fluffier, so perhaps this cake wouldn't be as dense. The other thing that drew me to this cake was the tiny bit of honey. I've been obsessed with honey flavored desserts for a while now, ever since experiencing honey lavendar ice cream.

The cake came out as wonderful as promised. The cake looks dense, but also manages to be super moist and the cake flour keeps it from being too dense. The hint of honey adds a wonderful flavor to this cake.  This is now one of my favorite recipes and definitely is going to be my go-to recipe for sour cream pound cake.

 Sour Cream Bundt Cake (recipe from Sweet Kat's Kitchen)

1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 ½ c. sifted cake flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 3/4 c. granulated sugar (I thought my cake was a bit too sweet, so I would reduce this)
6 lg. eggs, room temperature
1 c. sour cream
1 T. vanilla extract

2 T. honey

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt or 10-inch tube baking pan or spray with nonstick baking spray containing flour.
2. Sift together the flours, baking soda and salt. Sift again. Set aside. Combine the sour cream, vanilla extract and honey in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. In large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 10 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the sour cream mixture and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix just enough to blend the batter after each addition. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 25 minutes. Remove the pan and place the cake on a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.

Matcha marble tea cake

I recently was given a huge tub of sour cream. So this weekend, the theme for my baking were desserts that required sour cream. I normally don't eat sour cream and don't particularly care for the taste, but I love sour cream in desserts.  Sour cream can create super moist cakes.

A while back I made this matcha marble tea cake which I really enjoyed. However the matcha powder I used ended up turning brown in the baking process. I've been wanting to go back to the recipe, but haven't had a chance until now.

The cake is moist, a bit on the dense side, and not too sweet, thanks to the green tea powder. It tastes similar to a  pound cake. I used matcha powder by Maeda-en, which has a brilliant bright green color which usually holds up quite well in baking.

I love the marble look of this cake. This is a perfect cake to eat with some tea.

Matcha green tea marble tea cake (recipe adapted from Cookbook Catchall)

Ingredients

1⁄2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 tablespoons matcha powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Line 9 x 5 loaf pan with foil.

3. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in eggs, one at a time. Mix in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with sour cream. Add vanilla, and mix 1 minute.

4. Portion out 1/3 of the batter into a small bowl. Mix in matcha powder, stirring well to combine.

5. Spread one-third of the plain batter into prepared pan. Use a small offset spatchula to ensure an even, flat layer. Dollop with 1/3 of matcha batter and use a spatchula to gently spread the matcha layer on the top of the other. Spread another third of the plain batter on top, followed by another third of the matcha batter. Repeat one more time so that the final layer is the rest of the matcha batter. Run a thin knife through batter to marbleize. Run spatchula over top to ensure the batter is flat in the end.

6. Bake until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire cooking rack for a few minutes. Lift cake out and allow to cool completely on rack.