Decadent Irish Cream

At this very moment, my kitchen is filled with the delicious smells of Chocolate Chip Irish Cream Pound Cake (tidbit, did you know pound cake is so named because it used to contain a pound each of butter, sugar, flour, and eggs? My goodness, a pound of butter!). I love Bailey's, in everything! It is especially good in hot cocoa. This cake is beautiful and low in fat. It contains 305 calories a slice, a bit high but half of what an original slice of pound cake would contain. The secret to this cake is only 8 tablespoons of butter (instead of the original 32 tablespoons) combined with fat free cream cheese. Cream cheese is wonderful as a substitute for butter. It still gives a rich, moist cake with a significantly reduced amount of calories. I also will sub applesauce in certain cakes for butter. Not quite as rich, but much healthier. This recipe is from the Cooking Light website and I hope it's as wonderful as it smells. Hold on a second and I'll tell you!

Yep, it's amazing!

Chocolate Chip Irish Cream Pound Cake

• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup Irish Cream liqueur (I used 1/2 cup and it was plenty!)
• Baking Spray with flour
• 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon flour in small bowl and toss to coat. Combine rest of flour, baking powder, and salt in mixing bowl and stir till well combined. Place cream cheese and butter in seperate bowl and beat on high to blend. Add sugars and vanilla and mix together. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beat well after each addition. Beat on high for 1 minute. With mixer on low, add flour mixture and liqueur to sugar mixture and beat well. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into 12-cup bundt pan that has been well greased or sprayed. Bake for 55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Then cool completely on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.