Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Marble Cake

Hope you all had a wonderful and fruitful week. Especially with Hari Raya holiday, everyone gets to spend some quality time with family and perhaps a little quiet time too. How did you spend your holiday? Since its a school term break as well, I get to spend lots of time with my kids, literally 24-7, lol! Although we didn't do any holiday trip this time, we were already contented that we still get to spend more time with family here. :D But of course I still get to bake as often as I can when my kids are playing or doing things on their own. And I happened to bake this lovely Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Marble Cake that was very well received by my children. In fact I have already baked it twice and they are still asking for more!

Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Marble Cake: (makes a 12 cup bundt cake)
Chocolate Paste
3 tbsp cocoa powder (I used Valrohna, feel free to use any brand you prefer)
3 tbsp hot water

Cake Batter
1 cup (250g) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups (450g) caster sugar (I reduced it to 350g)
4 large eggs
2 & 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 cups (210g) sour cream
3 cups (420g) all purpose flour
2 & 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips (I used 100g chocolate bar, chopped into small chunks)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180C. The generously grease a 12 cup bundt pan.
  
• In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and the hot water together to make a smooth paste.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs and then vanilla. Then add in the sour cream, and scraping the bottom of the mixing bowl to make sure it is evenly combined.
• Fold in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and blend well. Lastly, mix in the chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks into the batter and mix well.
• Remove 1/3 of the batter and mix in the chocolate paste in to it.
• Spoon in big scoops of vanilla batter into the bundt pan and alternating with some spoons on chocolate batter as well to create the marble effect. Repeat till all the batter has been put in.
  
• Place in the oven to bake for 40 to 50 minutes, depending on your oven. Bake till golden brown and the tester comes out clean. If the top of the cake browns too quickly, cover with foil first until done.
• Once baked, remove from oven and let cool on rack for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool completely. Enjoy!!
  

This tender-crumbled, lusciously flavored butter cake is such a delight! It actually slices like velvet, so yummy!

Furthermore its not hard to prepare. But the key is to use quality cocoa powder to make this. I used Valrohna cocoa powder and the deep, dark chocolate flavor really made this cake more luscious. :)

I love the chocolate chips in the cake, it's like biting into little "bonuses", nice! ;) I used 70% cocoa chocolate bar instead of the usual chocolate chips because I prefer the bittersweet dark flavor verses the sweeter version of the milk chocolate chips. :P

The 2nd time I made this cake, I used Madeline mould and also my Nordicware seashell pan which I got during one of my trips back to California . ;)Unfortunately due to the marble "effect" the seashells' shapes were not very obvious. However my kids loved it! They would pick their favorite shell shape and slowly savor it, lol!
Anyway, hope you will try this out and you will know what I mean. Definitely a delicious cake to share with your love ones. Okay, last but not least, Selamat Hari Raya to our fellow Muslims (hope I am not too late for that) and happy holidays to everyone!

Chocolate Twist Bread

I haven't been making anything exciting lately. It's the usual bread and cakes. Have so many things on the to-try list, but it seems like it's just keeps on growing longer, never shorter. But I guess everyone needs the usual simple recipes so that we can cope better in the kitchen, not having the turn it upside down just to make a simple meal for the family. :P Well, perhaps once in a while we make something special, if we have the time of the day. :) Today, I am just going to show another simple bread recipe that my kids love. Been making it a few times already, but only managed to post it up now. It's call Chocolate Twist Bread Bun.

Okay, I admit these buns are not that nicely twisted, but still acceptable right? Well, if you have handled bread dough before, you will understand why it's so hard to get it where you want it to be sometimes. :P

Although this buns doesn't look fantastic, they are still tender soft, chocolaty and delicious. My elder child is not a fan of buns, but she loves this, she chow one right down every time she had one. Want to make some to satisfy your bread / chocolate craving? Here is the recipe:

Ingredients for Chocolate Twist Bread Buns:
250g bread flour
40g cake flour
5g instant dry yeast
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
8g milk powder (about 2 tsp)
50ml water
80ml fresh milk
1 tsp baking powder
30g unsalted butter, room tmp

Filling:
40g cocoa powder
100g caster sugar
1/2 cup chocolate chips
40g butter, cut into small cubes

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, except butter, mix all ingredients together to form a soft dough.
• Knead the dough till it is not sticky and add the butter. Continue to knead. To test if dough is ready, stretch a small piece using the finger tips of both your hands. If you can pull the dough to almost see through texture without breaking it, it's probably done.
• Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let proof for at least 90 minutes or until it is doubled in size.
• In the meantime, prepare the filling. Mix the cocoa powder and sugar together and set aside.
• Once the dough has been proofed, punched out the air and roll it out into a flat rectangle, about 1cm thick.
  
• Sprinkle the cocoa and sugar mixture over the surface of the dough, leaving about 1 cm at the border. Then add chocolate chips and the small chunks of butter, evenly distribute them on the surface.
  
  
• From the longer end, roll up the dough like a swiss roll.
• Now using the rolling pin, roll the the dough flat.
  
  
• At this point, if dough tear a little on the surface or the chocolate chips tear through, it's alright, don't worry about it. Then using a knife or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into strips of about 5cm width.
  

• Then using both hands to hold one end of each strip and give it a few good twist. Then place the twisted bun on greased paper or bread paper cups if desired. And let the buns proof for another 10 minutes.

• Bake in the preheated oven of 180C for 13 to 15 minutes till golden brown. Remove and let cool on rack.

Being a mom with young kids, particularly with a picky eater, I have to be constantly thinking of ways / recipes to get my child to eat more. And I could not be more happy when I see my child happily eating and most of all finishing the goodies I made for them .:) Thank goodness she loves this....but ain't gonna make it too often though, might loose its effectiveness!

Check out the tender soft bread as I tear open the bun. Even an old kid like me enjoyed it very much, lol! I have also made these for my neighbors bake order and they too enjoyed it a lot. This recipe is pretty versatile, you can change the filling to any kind of your liking, either kaya and butter, or red bean or sesame paste, I am sure it will turn out good. :) Hope you all will try this one out. Cheers and have a great weekend ahead!