Chocolate Pound Cake
I have spent many years trying to find the perfect chocolate pound cake like I remember from my childhood and early adulthood. Truth be told, it has been a long journey with many recipes being tried and failing to provide that perfect texture and taste that I remember.
I tried recipes using cocoa and even melted chocolate, but nothing had the smooth small crumb texture of a pound cake. Pound cakes are very different from their cake counterparts. They have a dense texture with a small crumb. There are no huge holes in the cake from rising. It is uniform and velvety.
The perfect chocolate pound cake to me is one that is not overly chocolate in taste. You don't want it to overwhelm when you add the chocolate icing on top. Or even skip the icing all together as the sugar rises to the top to create this sweet chocolate crust.
Leave it to me to finally find the perfect combination of ingredients through my research. After many years of trying and failing, my recent purchase of some old southern cookbooks from the Carolinas led me to the perfect recipe. My recipe is a combination of 3 different recipes until I finally found what I had been searching for since I was 1
A dense chocolate pound cake with a chocolate icing.
- 2 stick Butter (Room Temp)
- 1/2 cup Shortening
- 3 cup Sugar
- 5 Eggs
- 1 cup Whole or 2 % milk (I use 2%)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 5 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 3 cup All Purpose Flour
- 2 cup Powdered Sugar
- 1/2 stick Butter
- 4 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 tbsp Milk (May need a little more or a little less.)
Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time to the creamed mixture.
Add milk and vanilla together for the wet ingredients. Do not add to mixture until you have your dry ingredients ready.
Combine dry ingredients together and sift twice.
Add 1/3 of the milk mixture and 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Combine. Then add another 1/3 of the milk and 1/3 of the dry ingredients and combine. Then add remaining wet and dry ingredients. Combine until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
Pour mixture into a prepared 10 inch tube pan. You can use a spray to prepare pan or grease and flour pan. Whichever you prefer.
Drop pan from a 5 inch height onto counter to make sure that there are no trapped air bubbles. Do this several times. You may see air bubbles rise to the surface. Once you no longer see air bubbles, you can place in oven to bake.
Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for an hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Chocolate Icing
Combine melted butter and cocoa. Whisk until there are no lumps. Add sugar and a Tablespoon of milk to make smooth. You do not want the icing to be too runny. It will thicken as the butter cools. Spread over completely cooled cake.