Chocolate Raspberry Loaf

A good friend came over today for a baking party. I love baking parties. There's nothing like baking something yummy and sharing it with a friend. Too bad I'm still on my diet and was only able to eat a bite-sized piece of this absolutely delicious chocolate raspberry loaf. Is there anything better than the combination of chocolate and raspberry? I think I may like it more than chocolate and strawberry. On a side note, whoever thought chocolate and orange would go well together must've been out of their mind.

Anyways, I found a wonderful recipe online, and we tweaked it so that it was a little diet-friendly. This loaf smelled absolutely wonderful out of the oven! The fresh raspberries really up this chocolate loaf. I think next time, I will double the recipe so that the loaf is bigger and add raspberry extract to the batter as well. It seems like the extract will enhance the aroma of raspberries even more. The result was a light, delicious, raspberry, chocolate loaf, not too sweet either which is a bonus to any Asian palate. Today's baking party = Success!



Recipe taken from this blog:

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder (use a high quality one)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup raspberry puree, strained
Vanilla extract
1 stick and 1/4 butter, softened, at room temperature
1 cup sugar (Used splenda)
3 large eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
Combine the raspberry puree with the extract and set aside.
3. Beat the softened butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Beat the 3 eggs together in a small pitcher. Drizzle them into the softened butter & sugar mixture slowly, all the while beating the ingredients together.
5. After the mixture has come together (it must be smooth), add in 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Fold this in gently.
6. Fold in half of the raspberry puree mixture.
7. Fold in the remaining half of the dry ingredients, followed by the rest of the raspberry puree.
8. Finish off with the last third of the dry ingredients.
9. Bake this in a loaf tin (or any other tin you desire...) until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10. Consume the warm cake with joy in your hearts, and your house will smell like heaven.