Irish Cream Chocolate Cake

To date, I have tried out numerous chocolate cake recipes. Most of them are similar in one aspect - they usually turn out to be crumbly. This was something I had not expected when I made an Irish Cream Chocolate Cake just a few weeks back. 

Whenever I decide on any recipes to try out, I will take some time to read the brief write-up to learn more about the cake (if there is any), followed by scrutinizing the list of ingredients. What brought my attention to this particular pound cake is the use of Irish Cream, a generous amount of it compared to just a mere few tablespoons.

The author had described this particular cake to be dense yet velvety in texture. It does sounds contradicting that the cake can be dense yet velvety at the same time. However, I can attest to the fact that these two qualities are not mutually exclusive.  I could understand perfectly what she meant after having tasted the cake. There is hardly any crumbs falling when I took a bite into a slice of it, as opposed to the conventional chocolate cake which is ever-so-crumbly. Flavour-wise, there is a decent caramel hint of Irish Cream minus the alcoholic aftertaste that which some might not welcome.

Irish Cream Chocolate Cake (recipe adapted from 300 Best Chocolate Recipes by Julie Hasson) 

Taste and texture: Dense yet velvety, has a decent hint of Irish Cream. 

Serving size: 8-10 slices, makes one 9 x 5 inch cake

Equipment and materials:

• 9 x 5 inch loaf
• Mixing bowls
• Measuring spoon set
• Measuring jar
• Handheld mixer/ Stand beater
• Baking paper
• Flour sieve
• Rubber spatula

Ingredients:

• 185g cake flour
• 45g cocoa powder
• a pinch of salt
• 225g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 200g castor sugar
• 200g whole eggs, at room temperature
• 150ml Baileys Irish Cream

Making the cake:

Preparing loaf tin and oven - Line and grease a 9 x 5 loaf tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 

Preparing dry ingredients - In a large mixing bowl, sift in cake flour, cocoa powder and salt. Use a wire whisk to disperse the dry ingredients evenly. 

Creaming the butter - Place softened butter and castor sugar in a mixing bowl. Cream the butter as mentioned in how to cream butter. 

Adding eggs to creamed butter - Add eggs to creamed butter in 4 additions, beating the mixture for 2 minutes on medium low speed after each addition is added. As eggs are added, the mixture tends to curdle. With continuous beating, the mixture becomes smooth and firms up. 

Alternating dry ingredients and Irish Cream - Add 1/3  of the dry ingredients to the egg-butter mixture. Beat on low speed until dry ingredients disappears and batter is smooth. Next, add in half of the Irish cream and continue to beat on low speed until Irish Cream is incorporated and batter is smooth. Repeat the alternating of dry ingredients and Irish Cream until all ingredients are used up and batter is smooth. Scrape down sides and bottom of mixing bowl with a spatula to blend in stray ingredients. The process should be as follows

1. Add first 1/3 addition of dry ingredients.
2. First 1/2 addition of Irish Cream.
3. Second 1/3 addition of dry ingredients.
4. Remaining 1/2 of Irish Cream.
5. Remaining 1/3 dry ingredients.

Baking the cake - Pour batter in lined loaf tin and bake at 180 degrees C for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10mins. Allow cake to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.