Chocolate Pound Cake with Cream Cheese Swirl & my first Give Away

UPDATE: And the winner is .... C&C Cakery!!! Congratulations! Thank you to everyone who entered my first, hopefully not last, give away.

THIS IS MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!! CSN Stores is a wonderful site that has 200+ online stores and over 1 million products. These products range from fully furnished bedrooms including platform beds to every item imaginable for the kitchen. Their sites are easy to navigate and they have great prices, products and service.

I am so happy to pass on this wonderful offer from CSN Stores. They offered one of my readers a $40.00 gift card towards any product at any of their sites. I am so happy that one lucky winner will benefit from this. All you need to do is follow the easy steps below to be entered to win.  I am not being compensated for this post. Tell everyone and don’t let this offer get away from you. 

I love their cookware site and will be ordering a Le Crueset dish (that is on sale) soon! So, to be entered into this draw all you have to do is become a "google friend" on the left and leave a comment telling me you did so and what you might choose if you are the lucky winner. For an extra entry, blog about this give away and leave the link in a separate comment here. Please note: Due to shipping restrictions, only entries from Canada and the US will be able to win :( AND if you already a google friend just leave me a comment saying that!

The deadline is Sunday, August 1st and I will announce the winner on Tuesday, August 3rd! Contest is now closed.

What better way to celebrate my first give away then with a cake! It's a chocolate pound cake adapted from Rose Levy Barenbaum's Cake Bible. I add kahlua to intensify the chocolate flavour and created a cream cheese swirl in the middle! It's so good. I've baked them in 6 mini bundt pans bit in can also be baked in a 8x4 loaf pan for 50-60 minutes.

Chocolate Pound Cake with Cream Cheese Swirl

Ingredients - Cake

• 3 tbsp + 1.5 tsp unsweetened cocoa
• 1.5  tbsp boiling water
• 1.5 tbsp kahlua
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
• 3/4 c + 2 tbsp castor sugar
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 13 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

 What to do:

• In medium bowl whisk together cocoa, water and kahlua until smooth.
• Whisk in eggs and vanilla.
• In large bowl mix together the remaining dry ingredients for about 30 seconds.
• Add half of the cocoa mixture.
• Mix until just combined then, using medium speed, mix for 1 minute.
• Add 1/2 of the remaining cocoa mixture and beat for 20 seconds.
• Add the remaining chocolate mixture and mix for another 20 seconds.
• Scrape down sides.

Cream Cheese Swirl

• 1 package cream cheese (about 1 cup), room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sugar

To make cream cheese mixture:

• Beat the ingredients together until smooth.

Putting it together
Butter and flour mini bundt pans. Fill pans 1/3 full with cake batter. Add layer of cream cheese, trying not to touch sides of pan with cream cheese mixture. Top with cake batter leaving about 1-1.5 cm space at top of bundt cavities.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes.

Note: I find the easiest way to layer batter and cream cheese is to place batter and cheese mixture in separate ziploc bags. Just cut the bottom tips of each bag and squeeze each into the pans - easy, neat and you have complete control of what goes where!