This sounds very good, but I'd use a lot less sugar: Mexican Chocolate Pound Cake

I like things much less sweet - more a European taste than American, I guess. Plus less sugar means

more chocolate taste!

 
Ah, true. I baked my Mexican Chocolate Pound Cake

this past Saturday and used the very darkest, deepest cocoa I could find. I was really alarmed at the color of the batter (it was almost black), but the final product was amazing. Paired with a bittersweet chocolate ganache, vanilla ice cream, and a raspberry coulis made with raspberries from my own bushes (frozen, then thawed, of course). It was a great dessert.

 
Chocolate Pound Cake

I've posted this here before, I think. It's my go-to recipe for chocolate cake. I've used a variety of cocoas, but this time I could only find--don't laugh--Hershey's Special Dark. Usually I use Drooste, but this worked quite well.

I clipped this from the Chicago Tribune, which attributed it to the "Indian Market Cookbook" by Mark Miller.

3 eggs
2/3 cup milk
3 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup good-quality cocoa powder (I use Droste)
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks butter)

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Grease and flour (I use cocoa powder) a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan (I use a bundt pan).
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, water, and vanilla. Sift together the cocoa, sugar, salt, baking powder, and flour into the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (I just use my handheld mixer).

4. Mix in the butter and half of the liquid ingredients, and when moistened, increase the mixing speed to medium-high. Beat together for 2 minutes, turn down the speed to low and add the remaining liquid, stirring until incorporated.

5. Pour into pan, and bake 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Remove from the pan and let cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
(This is not part of Mark Miller's recipe, but I've started using it with this pound cake. I believe it originally came from PegW of Gail's Recipe Swap.)

1 cup whipping cream
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate

Heat cream in heavy saucepan until just below a boil. Add chocolate and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it is totally melted and completely merged with the cream. Cool until very warm but not hot, and pour over cooled cake generously, letting it drip attractively down the sides.

If you cover the cake completely with the glaze, it will stay moist longer. This glaze thickens as it gets cold. If you want it to set quickly, refridgerate for 30 minutes. This glaze can also be used to sandwich cookies or as a cake filling. Keeps well at room temperature.

 
Oh yeah, I have that one saved in my files! (plus a note to reduce the sugar smileys/smile.gif

 
I use Droste a lot also. I heard that the new Hershey's Special Dark is not as good as their

original. Have you noticed any difference? (I've never tried either).

 
Well, it calls for a total of 3 cups: 2 cups brown & 1 cup white, so I'd probably do about

1 1/2 cups total or slightly more, and divide it this way: about 1 cup plus 1 Tbsp brown and 1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp white. It's quite a drastic reduction, but I like my chocolate desserts DARK! Of course, there is a risk of the cake turning out drier than it should, because of such a giant reduction in sugar. I would be extra careful with the baking time, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center came out with a few moist crumbs attached.

 
Amanda! Take cuttings from your bushes when you leave

Then you can replant them in your new place! Search online to tell you how to do this.

That's how we got our raspberry patch! smileys/smile.gif

 
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