This easy Chocolate Pound Cake recipe is rich, fudgy and topped with a homemade chocolate ganache. With some whipped cream and strawberries, this decadent chocolate fudge pound cake is out of this world.
Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day or skipping over the holiday altogether, this easy Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe is a dessert must!
And the chocolate ganache on top?? I’d eat it by the spoonful.
Are you a Valentine’s Day person?
I mean, I for one, love a holiday that’s centered around chocolate. Sure, I eat chocolate on the regular with absolutely no shame and guilt, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a holiday excuse to eat it in excess amounts.
And truly, because those heart-shaped chocolate boxes go on sale the day after, there really is an excuse to continue eating chocolate for a couple more days.
Perhaps even the whole weekend, since Valentine’s Day tends to fall on a holiday weekend…
That’s how it works, right?
Of course, you could skip the box of chocolates and make this homemade Chocolate Pound Cake instead (something I whole heartedly support). If you opted to eat the whole thing by yourself, I certainly wouldn’t judge either.
I know when most people think of comfort food, it’s often something savory—something full of cheese and cream and pasta, etc. But, as a dessert person, I find that something sweet can be just as comforting.
Valentine’s Day can definitely be a sensitive holiday for a lot of people (and bring back flashbacks to high school fundraisers where people could send chocolate roses to people and some people got whole bouquets (you go, Glen Coco) and others never even got one…good fundraiser, people. Way to help with the whole self-esteem situation a lot of people face in high school).
So whether you’re celebrating with the love of your life, with your best friends, or by yourself, I think comfort chocolate dessert is definitely in order.
I’m a big fan of pound cake, and I’ll be the first to tell you that I love any type of pound cake, especially that frozen Sara Lee stuff. A slice of that with whipped cream on top = the best midnight snack anyone could ask for.
My sister and I know that for a fact.
(Also, it makes these Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake Trifles so easy!!)
Anyway, back to the homemade stuff, whether it’s something lighter in flavor like this Peach Pound Cake or something as decadent and rich as this Chocolate Pound Cake recipe, pound cake is, in my humblest of opinions, irresistible.
Let’s get down to the details of this recipe:
This is a chocolate pound cake without shortening and is made with butter. In fact, pound cake got its name by the sheer fact that a traditional pound cake recipe calls for a pound of butter, sugar, flour and eggs.
Technically, this chocolate fudge pound cake version doesn’t call for a pound of each of those ingredients, but the amount of each ingredient used makes a perfectly moist, perfectly fudgy chocolate pound cake.
To truly enhance the rich chocolate flavor of this recipe, I opted to forgo any cocoa powder in the recipe and instead strictly use melted chocolate and a bit of coffee (because coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate). It makes for an ultra chocolatey cake.
Tips & Tricks to make this easy Chocolate Pound Cake recipe:
- While I made this in a bundt pan, you could easily turn this into a chocolate pound cake loaf cake by dividing the batter between two loaf pans.
- I used semi-sweet chocolate, but you could use milk chocolate (or a combo) if you prefer a milk chocolate pound cake recipe.
- You can make a chocolate frosting or glaze to go on top of this if you do not want to make a ganache. Or you could serve the ganache on this side so that people can decide how much or how little ganache they want on their slice.
- I decorated this with strawberry halves. While this is a pretty look for the chocolate fudge pound cake, the juice from the strawberries can seep into the ganache and make it watery. My suggestion would be to add the strawberry halves, if you want to use them, at the last second before serving.
- Or, get crazy and serve this with homemade strawberry ice cream! Chocolate + strawberries = winning at life.
While I might be extremely biased, I would definitely call this an award winning chocolate pound cake recipe. 😉
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp corn starch
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream)
- 3/4 cup brewed coffee, hot
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- Whipped Cream
- Chopped Strawberries
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bundt pan well. Set aside.
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In the microwave or in a double broiler, melt chocolate chips until smooth. Set aside.
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In a standing mixer or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix until well combined.
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Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
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Add in the melted chocolate and mix until combined.
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In a separate bowl, sift together flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt.
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Alternately add the dry ingredients and the greek yogurt to the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.
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Slowly add in the coffee and vanilla extract, mixing until just combined (over mixing the batter can yield a dry pound cake).
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Pour into your greased bundt cake pan.
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Bake for about 45-50 minutes, of until a cake tester comes out clean, with just a few moist crumbs stuck to it (in my oven, mine baked for exactly 48 minutes).
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Allow the cake to cool about 10-15 minutes before removing it from the bundt cake pan to finish cooling.
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In the microwave or in a double broiler, heat heavy cream until just under a boil.
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Pour the heavy cream over the chocolate chips and allow it to sit a couple of minutes.
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Whisk the chocolate and cream together until the ganache is smooth.
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Allow to sit a couple of minutes until your ganache has reached your desired thickness.
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Pour ganache over the the cake.
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If desired, top the cake with sliced strawberries* and/or serve with whipped cream and chopped strawberries.
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Enjoy!
*If you top with strawberry halves, I suggest doing it at the last minute, right before serving. The juice from the strawberries can release too much liquid into the ganache.
Here are some other chocolate recipes you might love:
White Chocolate Raspberry Brownie Bites
Cream Filled Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Jen says