Loaf cake on a loafy kind of day

It's a cold & rainy day here in Colorado.  What better way to spend it than baking??

So, I went through my "Little Black Book of Chocolate" again and found a recipe for Chocolate Loaf Cake.  It calls for ingredients that I always have on hand, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Loaf Cake

1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. dairy sour cream
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted
3/4 c. ground walnuts

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well blended.

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Stir into sugar mixture alternately with sour cream.  Stir in chocloate & walnuts.

Pour into greased 9 in x 5 in loaf pan.  Bake in preheated oven 65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Place pan on rack 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and cool on rack.

A couple of notes:

1. I did not adjust the leavening agent, per my friend's recommendation, even though I live at altitude.

2. I used 'light' sour cream, because that's what I have on hand.

3. I didn't have squares of unsweetened chocolate.  If you find yourself in this predicament, you can use 3 TBSP of cocoa powder PLUS 1 TBSP of shortening per ounce of chocolate that you need.  I melted the shortening in a pyrex measuring cup, then mixed in the cocoa powder.

4. I always consider nuts 'optional' in any given baked good.  If I added nuts, my children wouldn't eat said dessert, and I'd be forced to consume the entire loaf cake myself. That would be unfortunate.  I have not eaten an entire cake since college, and I had my reasons then.  Don't judge.

I had a little helper in my process today. My 9 year old son makes an excellent apprentice. Here he is, measuring out the sour cream.

Notice the excellent technique.  If only I could get him to clean his room with such intense focus!

The batter was very thick, almost like a banana bread batter.  I had to force it into submission with my spatula.

The finished product looked superb!  It rose in exactly the way I would expect it to!

Here's what it looks like sliced:

How did it taste?  Excellent.  It is not too dry (I attribute this to baking only 60 minutes, and leaving in the pan for 15).  I intend to serve it for dessert tonight with some fresh strawberries and fresh whipped cream.  YUM!

As an aside, it was also most excellent with a nice red wine.  I really like this Pinot Noir.  It's a nice, smooth red at a decent price.  Take note of the glass.  It was one of my mom's, and was the one that I always seemed to choose on our infamous "wine & Scrabble" Friday nights.  Yes, people, my life is *that* exciting.

Thanks for reading.  On to the next baking adventure...........

xo, Shell