TWD: Dressy chocolate loaf cake

Some of Dorie's recipes have funny names, don't they? I love loaf cakes, but dressy and chocolate don't really do it for me. I do have some chocolate-loving friends, though, and they were helping me to move yesterday, so dressy chocolate loaf cake it was! What gussies this cake up is that it's cut into 3 layers and  sandwiched with jam. I used sour cherry jam, thinned with Amaretto. The frosting is a simple mixture of melted chocolate and sour cream. I used a mix of milk chocolate and 72% dark chocolate in the interest of using up what was left in my cupboard.

This was a really quick and easy cake to mix, which was a relief after the wedding cake marathon. I added some vanilla and upped the salt, as I find many of the recipes in the book could use a bit more. Some had trouble with this overflowing the pan, so I only filled the pan about ½ to ⅔ full and it rose just to the top. With the extra I filled a couple of ramekins. I think I'm going to have to break down and get a muffin pan one of these days, because I keep ending up with gigantic cupcakes. And eating them.

This is the one I taste-tested inhaled, so I used a different frosting. Chocolate cake I can do, but with chocolate icing too, no. Mixed with sour cream? Nope. So, I had some very sweet white icing in the freezer that was actually leftover Oreo filling, from this fun day. I thinned it with a bit of cream and slathered it on. Yum. Cleaning out the freezer was on my list, so this wasn't just idle procrastination from packing. I think this is why I've been 'almost finished' for 3 days. I'm sure some of you are rolling your eyes, but not only am I not a chocoholic, but I hate sour cream. I won't go into great detail about all the reasons I don't like it, but ick. It does make great cakes, though. I sometimes replace it with yogurt, which I love, love, love, but I wanted the richness here, and I wasn't sure yogurt would work for the frosting. 

I don't have a picture of the finished cake to post because it looked like a big brown blob. Maybe when I slice it and have internet again I'll add one. I'm writing this on Sunday night and the move is tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be sound asleep and all my stuff will be in its new home (storage) when this posts. :)

Thanks a lot to Amy Ruth from Amy Ruth Bakes for choosing this recipe. It was one I definitely would have passed over, and that would have been a shame. Check out the rest of the TWDers here.