Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe

My favorite homemade Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe begins with melted chocolate to create a rich chocolate flavor and a tender, buttery cake crumb. It’s topped with a homemade chocolate ganache and fresh strawberries. 

Calling all chocolate lovers, this rich chocolate pound cake is for you! Between the melted chocolate in the recipe, the rich brewed coffee in the batter, and the chocolate ganache on top, this is chocolate cake recipe for all the chocolate lovers out there.

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.

Reasons Why I Love This Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe:

• This is a chocolate pound cake without cocoa powder. Instead, making chocolate pound cake with chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate) makes for an incredibly rich and moist pound cake. 
• This recipe calls for brewed coffee! Of course, you can use hot water if you prefer, but coffee brings out the flavor of chocolate and intensifies the flavor without bringing any coffee flavor.
• There’s sour cream in the recipe, and you know a sour cream chocolate pound cake is going to make the cake extra rich, extra moist, and extra fluffy.

Some Other Pound Cake Favorites:

• Lemon Bundt Cake
• Strawberry Bundt Cake
• Vanilla Chocolate Marble Pound Cake

Ingredients:

• chocolate chips: feel free to use chopped chocolate if you don’t have chocolate chips
• unsalted butter: use unsalted butter in baking so you can control the level of salt in your baked goods.
• brown sugar and granulated sugar
• eggs
• baking soda & salt
• all purpose flour & corn starch: this combination creates a homemade cake flour, which will make your pound cake extra tender.
• sour cream: sour cream adds extra moisture and fat into baked goods without changing the flavor. It makes for a very tender crumb in cakes.
• brewed coffee: coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate, but you can use hot water instead.
• vanilla extract

Ganache:

• chocolate chips
• heavy whipping cream

Can I Make This a Chocolate Pound Cake Loaf Instead of a Bundt Cake?

• Yes, you can turn this into a chocolate loaf cake. You will need to divide the batter between two loaf cake pans. 

Can I Freeze Pound Cake?

• Yes, but I’d suggest freezing it without the ganache on top. 

How Would You Serve Chocolate Pound Cake?

• There are lots of way you can serve pound cake:
  • Slice it and serve it as is. Between the chocolate ganache and the moist chocolate cake, you really don’t need to add anything else to it if you don’t want to. It’s perfectly fudgy and rich.
  • However, you could serve it with additional whipped cream and berries.
  • Or, serve it with a scoop of ice cream on top.
  • Caramel sauce, chocolate chips, or nuts would also be great additions. 

Why Is It Called Pound Cake?

• Pound cake originally got it’s name because the recipe called for a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, and a pound of eggs. 
• Technically, this recipe does not have a pound of each of those—however, it certainly has the taste and texture of a southern chocolate pound cake. 

Additional Tips to Make This the Best Chocolate Pound Cake ever:

• Don’t over cook the pound cake. Because it’s a chocolate cake, it can be hard to tell if it’s done. 
• The best way to see if it’s done is to use a cake tester. If the tester comes out clean with some fudgy cake crumbs stuck to it, then it’s done. If it comes out wet, then it needs more time in the oven.
• Generously spray your bundt cake pan with baking spray. Bundt cakes are pretty, but they can be a major pain to get out of the pan if they get stuck.
• Don’t forget about your chocolate while it’s melting. It can burn or sieze quickly (you don’t even want to know how many times I’ve burned chocolate).

Final Thoughts:

• 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.

5 from 1 vote

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Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe

Prep Time

45 mins

Cook Time

50 mins

Total Time

1 hr 35 mins

 

My favorite homemade Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe begins melted chocolate to create a rich chocolate flavor and a tender, buttery cake crumb. It’s topped with a homemade chocolate ganache and fresh strawberries. 

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chocolate pound cake

Servings: 12 -14 slices

Author: Michelle

Ingredients

Chocolate Pound Cake

• 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 sour cream (or greek yogurt)
• 3/4 cup brewed coffee, hot
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Ganache

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Toppings

• Whipped Cream
• Chopped Strawberries

Instructions

Chocolate Pound Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a bundt pan well. Set aside.
2. In the microwave or in a double broiler, melt chocolate chips until smooth. Set aside.
3. 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.
4. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Add in the melted chocolate and mix until combined.
6. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt.

7. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the sour cream to the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

8. Slowly add in the coffee and vanilla extract, mixing until just combined (over mixing the batter can yield a dry pound cake).
9. Pour into your greased bundt cake pan.
10. 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).
11. Allow the cake to cool about 10-15 minutes before removing it from the bundt cake pan to finish cooling.

Ganache

1. In the microwave or in a double broiler, heat heavy cream until just under a boil.
2. Pour the heavy cream over the chocolate chips and allow it to sit a couple of minutes.
3. Whisk the chocolate and cream together until the ganache is smooth.
4. Allow to sit a couple of minutes until your ganache has reached your desired thickness.
5. Pour ganache over the the cake.

Toppings

1. If desired, top the cake with sliced strawberries* and/or serve with whipped cream and chopped strawberries.
2. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

*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 recipe favorites:

Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies

White Chocolate Raspberry Brownies

No Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Trifles

Updated 2021.