Dark and rich, this Chocolate Pound Cake is any chocolate lover’s dream. A dense chocolate cake has dark chocolate chips throughout and then is topped with a dark chocolate glaze.
If you are a chocolate lover, make sure you check out all of my other chocolate recipes! (The Dark Chocolate Cake with Nutella Buttercream and German Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling are two of my favorites!)
I love a good cookbook, so much that I have been known to just sit and read a cookbook like someone else would read a novel. I love them all, but a good baking book especially excites me.
And if you need a baking book in your kitchen, Homemade Decadence from Joy the Baker is the one to add.
Homemade Decadence by Joy the Baker
I’ll admit that it was the cake on the cover of the cookbook that first drew me in to this book. But then I spent some one-on-one time with this book, reading through the pages, and kind of fell in love with the whole book. I love that there are recipes that have just a little twist to make them unique – like the Butterscotch Cream Pie with Thyme-Marshmallow Meringue. But then you get recipes that are familiar, like Lemon Bars. There is definitely a great variety of recipes in this book.
Then came the decision of what to make. It wasn’t an easy one. In fact, I couldn’t decide, so I narrowed it down to about 6 or 7 recipes and then I had my husband choose. This Chocolate Pound Cake was the easy winner.
As much as I love a good layer cake, there is something charming and alluring about the understated pound cake.
But this Chocolate Pound Cake is nothing close to understated.
What is a Pound Cake?
Traditionally, pound cake got its name from the ingredients – a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter and a pound of eggs. It’s a denser, richer cake. And traditionally baked in a loaf pan.
Today, there are a lot more liberties taken and the name usually just refers to a cake that is not as light and fluffy, but has that dense, rich texture. All I know is that I love pound cake!
Tips for this Chocolate Pound Cake
- The cake ingredients call for hot coffee. And, well, I’m not a coffee drinker. I considered substituting in just water for the coffee, but in the end I decided to just go for it because I know that the coffee intensifies the chocolate flavor. But since I’m not a coffee drinker, I didn’t have a cup of coffee laying around. And I know I should have probably gone for high quality, but I bought a little jar of instant coffee from the grocery store, hoping for the best.Now, I can’t say to how this would have turned out had I used high quality coffee, but this chocolate pound cake was a hit with the whole family. The flavors are deep and dark and if you are a chocolate fan, you will definitely love this.
- We all devoured a piece of this cake the day I made it. But if you have the self control, I beg you to wait a day – as much as I liked it when it was fresh, the texture and crumb of the cake on the second day was so spot on. And honestly – I can’t tell you if it got even better by the third day because there wasn’t any left! 🙂
- This recipe does call for Dutch Processed Cocoa instead of the more common regular unsweetened cocoa powder. If you can find it, I definitely think it’s worth picking up for this recipe. Sometimes it’s hard to find, though, so in that case, you can replace the cocoa in the cake with 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and a scant 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. For the glaze, you could just replace it with regular unsweetened cocoa powder.
More Pound Cake Recipes
Buttermilk Pound Cake with Caramel Icing
Coconut Orange Pound Cake
Pistachio Lemon Pound Cake
Brown Sugar Pound Cakes with Brown Butter Icing
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Chocolate Pound Cake
Ingredients
Pound Cake
- 1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup hot coffee
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup buttermilk
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 to 4 tablespoons milk or water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or line with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, mix together the cocoa powder and hot coffee until the cocoa powder has dissolved.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing for 1 minute after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Add in the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Very carefully mix in the coffee/chocolate mixture until combined. Add in the buttermilk, then fold in the chocolate chips. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. Allow the cake to cool for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, to make the glaze, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Stir in the salt and then the vanilla. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of milk, then continue to add the liquid until the glaze reaches the desired consistency.
- When the cake is cooled, pour the glaze over the top of the cake. Let the cake sit for 30 minutes before cutting and serving.
Angel says
Thanks for the recipe. I made for Thanksgiving and used the recipe to make the cake flour. It turned out perfect 👌!
SANDY LEVINE says
I made this cake as a surprise for my best friend. I don’t care for chocolate myself (I’m crazy, I know) but you do anything for your best friend right? This cake was sensational! I loved it and she loved it even more!
M says
👏👏👏 wonderful cake. I think i made it three times. Just watch it very carefully when it bakes. Other than that so so good. And it tastes better the longer it is stored.
Deborah says
I’m so glad that you loved it!
Irene says
Just made this lovely cake, l so liked the look of it l had to make it , the kitchen smells wonderful can,t wait to try it. Thankyou.
sue says
Just made this cake. Its really soft& yummy. Thank you so much for sharing.
Pauline says
I made this as a heart birthday cake for my daughter. It was a resounding success. Still tasted great days later,. Absolutely lovely.
Brooke Owens says
Ohmy lord I have to try this pound cake!! I’m in a group on Facebook called Cookbook Junkies. They are all enablers and not helpful if you want to quit the cookbook habit LOL. I have ZERO desire to quit! It’s always nice to know your not the only cookbook crazy person out there.
Deborah says
Ha – I think that’s a group I need to stay far, far away from. 😉
Satchid says
ThIs cake is absolutely super! It’s a the encounter I have had with the world of cocoa! I have described it in my instagram post with a picture of the cake I baked yesterday. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I really enjoyed bringing it to life!
Stephanie R says
I was JUST telling my kids how I should make some poundcake soon, and this one looks amazing. I might just have to make one of these!
nina says
Hi ..my daughter and I just finished d making this cake..it was a disaster !! It overflowed all over the oven a took about an hour and 15 minutes before I could take it out of the oven..it was very watery in the middle..when we finally took it out. It completely sunk in the middle. It’s almost comical how poorly it turned out! Any thoughts on what we did wrong? We followed the directions exactly..We were so disappointed… We were all looking forward to it! Looked delicious! It actually still tastes good but there wasn’t much left after the spill over and the sinking..:(
Deborah says
Hi Nina,
I’m not sure what went wrong! The only thing I can think of is if the batter was beat for too long, incorporating too much air, that could cause the cake to rise too much and overflow. I also know that I have another recipe that calls for Dutch cocoa powder, and if I use regular unsweetened cocoa powder instead of Dutch, it always falls in the middle. So sorry this didn’t work out perfectly for you!
Mihi says
Can I replace the buttermilk with something else ?
Deborah says
You’ll need the acid from the buttermilk, but if you don’t have buttermilk, you can just add a splash of vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
Mihi says
Okay ! thank you