Kitchen Mome: Sour Cream and Amarula Chocolate Cake

At the end of very fuzzy-brained week (with my upper respiratory tract playing reluctant host to a nasty virus), at least this was one thing I didn't have to think too hard about: what to bake for Fathers Day. This is a very "masculine" cake; perfect for the hard-working man in your life ; )

It is not the first time I've used the chocolate and Amarula combination, but instead of just using Amarula in the cake, this time I've doused the icing with it, too.
I was a little more heavy-handed with the liqueur than I'd normally be - my sense of smell and taste are AWOL - but it works. Apparently!

Sour Cream and Amarula Chocolate Cake
Recipe by Tea, Cake and Create

Preheat the oven to 180'C
Grease and line 2x 20cm cake pans

Ingredients:
125ml (1/2 cup) boiling water
125ml (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
30ml (2 tbs) vegetable oil
60ml (1/4 cup) Amarula Cream liqueur
360g cake flour
11/2tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
165g butter
275g caster sugar
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
250ml (1 cup) sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the cocoa powder with the boiling water and oil and set aside to cool slightly. Then stir the Amarula into this mixture.

Sift the flour and baking soda into a bowl.

Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time, beat well between additions.
Add the vanilla extract and the cocoa mixture. Beat well.

With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the flour and the sour cream to the butter/ egg mixture. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Spoon into the prepared cake pans.
Bake for approx. 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out just-clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 10minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Amarula and Chocolate Icing
Recipe by Tea, Cake and Create

375g cream cheese
100g butter
3/4 cup sifted icing sugar
3/4 cup sifted cocoa powder
120ml Amarula Cream liqueur

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until smooth and creamy. Add the cream cheese. Beat until soft.
Beat in the cocoa and Amarula. Beat until combined.
Use to ice the cake once it (the cake) has cooled completely.

The flavour matures with time, so if possible, store this cake overnight before serving.