Polka Dotted Piece of Heaven

Pound Cake with Choco-Chips

My friend gave me some chocolate chips that were lying around her house and that got me thinking, what else could I use them for besides the obvious choice which would be choco-chip cookies.


And that’s when it came to me, a delicious soft springy pound cake with a beautiful sprinkling of chocolate chips. I decided to stick to my tried and tested pound cake recipe and just fold in the chocolate chips at the final stage. You can also substitute a vanilla sponge cake for the pound cake. I just find a pound cake easier to make and I also love its buttery flavour. 


I love chocolate (who doesn't, right?). But I'm also one of those people who finds chocolate overwhelming. This recipe is wonderful because you can distinctly taste the chocolate and the butter and neither of them overpowers the other... A perfect balance of sweet and salty.

The ingredients

The list of ingredients include:

• 100g all purpose flour
• 100g butter (I use salted butter in case you’re using unsalted add 1/4 tsp salt)
• 100g granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp chocolate chips

Equipment: Small Loaf Pan

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Butter and flour a loaf pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt (if using).
3. Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. You can use a stand mixer/ hand-held mixer but honestly this is one of those recipes that does not require very vigorous mixing and so you'll do fine with just a spatula... think of extra cake you could eat because of all the calories you'll burn.
4. Add the eggs one at a time beating them in for about a minute each.
5. Add the vanilla extract.
6. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients.
7. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Finally sprinkle 1 tbsp of chocolate chips over the batter. Cover the pan loosely with aluminium foil and bake the cake for 40-45 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove the foil during the last 5 mins of baking. 
9. Let the cake cool for about 10 mins before demoulding and cooling completely.

Batter with a sprinkling of chocolate chips just before it went into the oven

Here’s some pointers to remember while baking this polka dotted piece of heaven:

• Don’t over-mix the batter. If using a mixer, use it on low speed.
• Cover the cake and bake it or else there’s a chance that the sprinkled chocolate chips will burn and taste bitter. 
• My cake got just a little over-baked in the sides and the bottom… that’s because I made a mistake with the temperature. I set my oven at 200C and realized it only after 10 mins of baking. Thankfully it still tasted good.

I should specify that this is by no means an original idea.  I did troll the internet and I found several recipes that were more or less similar to mine. But I decided against using any of those. The pound cake recipe is one I learnt in my very first baking class and I just added the chocolate chips.


I believe every baking session has a lesson for an amateur like me. Today's lesson was:
"Check oven temperature before you put your cake in."