Deep Chocolate Pound Cake

I've never made a chocolate pound cake before. I've made many a regular vanilla pound cakes, but never chocolate. I'm not sure why I decided to make one today but it's one of the first recipes I looked at and I had all the ingredients, so I just went with it. This recipe is from my "Chocolate Chocolate" book by Lisa Yockelson. I followed the entire recipe but I threw a handful of semi sweet chocolate chips into the batter before placing in the oven. I wanted a little texture. When the cake is warm, the chocolate chips get all melty and gooey. Wonderful. Oh, and I didn't make it in a bundt pan - I used my usual mini loaf pans. These photos were actually taken hours after the cake loaves had already cooled but I placed 1 loaf in the microwave for 30 seconds before slicing. So damn good! One thing I can say about this recipe - make sure to remove the cake from the oven BEFORE you think it's completely baked. The recipe states to remove from oven when a toothpicks comes out clean. I think that's too late. Since it made about 9 mini loaves I took some of the loaves out at different times - just to experiment a little. The loaves that I removed while moist sticky crumbs stuck to the toothpick were best. The other ones that I removed when a clean toothpick emerged, were good but a bit "almost dry". The flavor of this cake is intensely chocolate. It's just dense and somewhat gooey and moist. I loved it!







Deep Chocolate Pound Cake
Chocolate Chocolate
Lisa Yockelson

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
3 cups superfine sugar
3 large eggs
2 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup heavy cream

Oven 325 degrees
Grease a 10 inch tube pan

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt twice onto a sheet of wax paper.

Cream butter in large bowl for 3 to 4 minutes. Add sugar in 4 additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion is added. Add eggs one at a time beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Blend in the vanilla extract & seeds. On low speed, alternately add the sifted flour mixture in 3 additions with the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl frequently to keep the batter even textured. Add heavy cream and beat for 1 minute.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the top.

Bake the cake, in the preheated oven, for 1 hour & 20 minutes or until risen, set and a toothpick inserted in the cake withdraws clean. The baked cake will pull away slightly from the sides of the pan.

Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert onto a cooling rack. Then invert again to stand right side up. Cool completely.

If you wish, sift confectioners sugar over the top before serving.