Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe (Dense Loaf Cake)
This chocolate pound cake recipe gives you a rich, dense crumb built on butter and eggs. You’ll mix the dry ingredients, cream the butter with sugar, then bake it low and slow so the center sets evenly. In the “how to make” steps, watch the mixing time and use a simple skewer test to avoid overbaking.
Ingredients
Ingredients
Step-by-Step Method
Preheat and prep the pan
Heat the oven to 160°C (320°F). Grease a loaf/pound cake pan and line the bottom with parchment so the cake releases easily.
Mix the dry ingredients
Sift together cake flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa. This helps prevent pockets of powder in the finished cake.
Cream butter and sugar
Beat the butter with both sugars until lighter in color and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl so everything mixes evenly.
Add eggs one by one
Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing briefly after each. Room-temperature eggs help keep the batter smooth.
Stir in vanilla and temper with hot water
Mix in the vanilla. Add the boiling water in a thin stream while stirring so the batter warms gradually rather than splitting.
Finish the batter
Add the dry mixture in 2–3 additions, mixing just until combined. Stop as soon as you no longer see dry flour.
Fold in chocolate and fill the pan
Fold in the chocolate chips/chunks with a spatula. Pour into the pan, level the top, and tap the pan lightly to release big air bubbles.
Bake and check doneness
Bake for about 101 minutes. A skewer inserted in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs, not wet batter.
Cool before slicing
Let it sit in the pan for 10–15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Cooling first makes clean slices.