Borders Books is going out of business, as most of you know. When they marked all the cookbooks down to 50% off, I bought both of Trisha Yearwood's books. I'm not a fan of her music but when I picked up her cookbooks and flipped through the pages, I was instantly taken with her down home recipes & simple ingredients. Of course I enjoy all of the baked goods but her dinner recipes also look relatively easy and downright delicious.
This chocolate poundcake is my first recipe from her books. I really loved this recipe. The result is a very dense not too dark chocolate cake with a nice crunchy top. You know how brownies form that lightly crunchy, crackled looking top? That's what this pound cake did. So the top of it has an entirely different texture than the inside and the combination is wonderful. I couldn't find my bundt pan so I used my tube pan (the kind you make angel food cake with). I sprayed it well and after removing the cake from the oven and letting it cool for 30 minutes, it popped right out of the pan. I watched the cake very closely during baking and took it out a little before it tested done and I'm glad I did. The residual heat baked it the rest of the way. I think it would have been too dry had I left it in the oven longer. The texture is very dense. It's a sturdy cake. I sifted the cocoa/flour mixture 3 times which made the cake have a nice fine crumb. The only thing I think I would change next time is I would probably bake it on a higher rack. The bottom got a bit too done. I had my tub pan set on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven. I think I will place it in the upper third next time. If you decide to make this recipe, take the cake out before you think it's done. Look for very sticky crumbs. If you pull the toothpick out of the middle of the cake and have no cumbs stick to it at all, it's probably already too done.
My only change to this recipe is I added a large handful of See's Candies Semi Sweet Discs. They are like really big chocolate chips and the quality of See's Candies is out of this world!
Chocolate Pound Cake
Trisha Yearwood
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease & flour a 10 inch tube pan
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt & cocoa together 3 times. Set aside.
Cream the butter, shortening & sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add the flour mixture & the milk, alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Add the vanilla.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour (My cake baked for about 1 hr & 20 minutes). Check for doneness with a toothpick. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 1 hour before turning it out to cool completely.
15 comments:
I just got this book and this is one of the recipes I bookmarked. It looks so delicious!!!
Thanks again for this recipe. I posted it today and linked back to you =o)
Awww, man. We baked this today. It is tasteless. Sorry. Not good.
It's in the oven now!
Trish Yearwood's recipe makes a delicious cake. I added a rich chocolate glaze...mmmm even better!
So, this cake was fantastic! I read all of the comments and don't know where some may have gone wrong but mine was super moist and packed with chocolate. I substituted buttermilk for the milk and added 1 cup of high quality chocolate chips (Guittard) and it really hit the spot. Super rich, no frosting needed. Maybe a chocolate fudge sauce, whipped cream or the ice cream would pair nice with it. I would make it again. Good chocolate fix too!
I have a nearly identical recipe from my mother in law. The only difference is that she used cake flour rather than all-purpose, and it is divine! Sometime I use a frosting and sometimes I don't. It's delicious either way!
I just took this cake out of the oven and it looks beautiful! I just can't wait to taste it because I took a taste of the batter and it was fabulous!
This is the recipe my husband's grandmother used for her Signature Chocolate Pound Cake. When any of the kids were away at college or working out of town, she sent one to them for Christmas and birthday. I took over baking it when she no longer could; my in laws would not let me in the door on Thanksgiving without it.
When my husband was away on a wellsite for his birthday and Christmas, I baked one and sent it to him.
My secret tricks with this cake are:
Melting 2 oz of baking chocolate and blending it in after the eggs are incorporated into the batter.
Combining the vanilla and 1/4 tsp Almond extract with the milk
Our recipe calls for an extra 2 Tbsp of milk. I substitute cold strong coffee - you would not believe what a tiny bit of coffee does to a chocolate cake!
Occasionally I use Mexican vanilla and add some cinnamon to the dry ingredients
One of my friends makes peppermint whipped cream and puts a bit on each slice (tinted pink of course)
The recipe calls for 3 cups of all purpose . My question is: if I use cake flour would I use the same amount? Thanks so much .
Cake flour substitutions is usually done by adding two extra tablespoons. So instead of using 1 cup all-purpose flour you would use one cup cake flour Plus two more tablespoons cake flour.
I added two chocolate snack pudding cups to the batter. It made this already awesome cake even more awesome ��
I loved all the comments about your cake experience … except I never will understand why you had to give your negative opinion on not liking Trisha Yearwood’s music… I don’t care who she is- why would you even need to put that in your intro? It would be hurtful if she read it… just saying…
Why does this appear to have chunks of chocolate in it? I see nothing like that in the recipe.
The last paragraph I wrote explains that my only change was I added a handful of chocolate chips to mine.
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