Chocolate Cinnamon Bread With Sugar Crust

I know I havent been posting much the past few days but my cooking has been....more then a little impaired this week. I've pretty much been staying on my pain pills since I started my knee injections Friday and it's had me feeling a bit "off" which is showing in my cooking.

Fortunately, I made this before my injection and it turned out soooo well. I really love this recipe. I found it via Baking Bites and when I saw it I knew I had to make it. I had it in the oven about 1 1/2 hrs after I found the recipe. YUM!


Chocolate Cinnamon Bread With Sugar Crust

Baking Bites

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder
pinch of ground cloves

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and thoroughly grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, waiting until the previous egg has been completely incorporated before adding the next.

3. In a medium bowl, sift together all purpose flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

4. In a measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk, water and vanilla extract.

5. Working in two or three additions, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the sugar mixture. Begin and end with an addition of the flour mix.

6. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

7. In a small bowl, whisk together topping ingredients: sugar, cinnamon, cocoa powder and ground cloves. Sprinkle evenly on top of the loaf cake. (Next time I will probably half the amount of the topping. A lot of it ended up coming off when the bread was turned out of the pan and it was excellent with the amount that did remain)

8. Bake at 350F for about 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

9. Allow cake to cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and turn out onto a wire cooling rack.

10. Cool completely before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf.