Accidental Chocolate Covered Pound Cake

I was extremely interested in Joy The Baker's Avocado Pound Cake recipe that I decided to bake them as my first experimental cake in the new oven. I baked before with an electric oven, and it was a blessing. Then I tried baking with the conventional oven -- it's cheap but it's tricky because it's the type of oven which heat source comes from the ordinary gas stove -- when I baked cupcakes and cookies with my friends. It was pleasant because one of my friend's maid was there to worry about the oven temperature and so on.

My mom bought me the same conventional oven for me to spend my free time with, since I like being in the kitchen so much. So far my creation had been limited to bake-free cakes such as frozen ones or pancakes... until today. I decided to try on avocado pound cake as the virgin oven cake.

But damn those avocados. I was halfway mixing the ingredients when I opened the avocado and found out that they were unmashable... as in they're not ripe enough yet. Was super disappointed because I'd altered some things in the recipe already.. and how to make avocado pound cake without an avocado??

I didn't have buttermilk so I substituted the buttermilk with a homemade substitute I'd learnt from the net, by mixing 15ml lemon juice with milk to make the liquid become 250ml. I didn't have cornmeal as well, and after doing some research of other pound cake recipes that don't require cornmeal, I passed the cornmeal.

Working with the oven was a challenge. First time using and I was downright sweating in front of that little metal thingy. The temperature kept on going up and down up and down that I couldn't leave it sit just like that-- I had to actually check the temperature every 5 mins and play with the stove for it to reach the right temperature again.

I love the cake's texture right out the oven. The outside is crunchy and crispy (almost biscuit-like) and the inside is not too soft, but soft enough.

Vanilla Pound Cake

recipe altered from Joy The Baker's.

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3 cups caster sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup buttermilk (I made it by the lemon and milk mixture I mentioned above)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.

2. In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In another bowl, beat butter with mixer on medium speed until softened and pliable. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 mins.

4. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg. Beat in vanilla extract.

5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture. Beat until combined.

6. Divide dough into the pans. Turn oven down to 325 degrees F. Bake for 40-45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Chocolate Butter

1 cup unsalted butter

4 tablespoons caster sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

beat with mixer until softened.