Skip to main content

Chocolate Pound Cake


Chocolate Pound Cake
Source: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.), pg. 163.

The cake is dense and not too sweet. The chocolate icing (made from 2 ingredients - semi-sweet chocolate and a ridiculous amount of butter) is and makes a nice contrast to the cake. The icing recipe made a ton of icing which ended up completely covering the cake. I don't mind that at all but if you just wanted a drizzle over the cake, I suppose you could half the icing recipe.

Cake

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 TBS. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter
1 TBS. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
2 TBS. plus 1 tsp. instant coffee
3 cups sugar
3 eggs 
1 cup strained, powdered, unsweetened cocoa (preferably Dutch process)
1 3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350. Adjust rack one-third up. Butter (or spray) a 10x4-inch tube pan, line the bottom with parchment paper and coat lightly with fine bread crumbs.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Beat the butter to soften.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
Add the instant coffee.
Gradually add the sugar.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until each is incorporated.
On lowest speed, gradually add the cocoa.
Alternately add the milk and dry ingredients in three additions (begin with the milk since the batter is heavy at this stage).
(Adding the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, finishing with the flour mixture) Beat until smooth.
Pour batter into cake pan. Turn the pan briskly a few times to level the top.
Bake from 70-90 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched and the cake comes away from the sides of the pan.
After removing from oven, cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then turn out onto a baking rack and let cool completely.

Icing

9 oz. sweet or semisweet chocolate
4 1/2 oz. (1 stick plus 1 TBS.) butter, at room tempeature

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water.
When the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, whisking until it melts in the chocolate.
Place strips of wax paper or parchment around the outer edges of the cake and spoon the icing over the cake. Allow the cake to sit while the icing hardens before serving.

Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
I'm in the process of making this awesome-looking cake and I just realized that you didn't say how many eggs were needed. Help!
December 8, 2012 at 1:50 PM
Phillip Oliver said…
I'm so sorry! It is 3 eggs!
December 8, 2012 at 2:19 PM
Anonymous said…
Thank you so very much! I was guessing somewhere between 3-5. Love your blog!
December 8, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints

Palm Beach Brownies with Chocolate Covered Mints Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. viii. I made these brownies again a few days ago and they were just as good as ever. This time I made half with York Peppermint Patties and the other half with Andes mints. There wasn't a noticeable difference in taste. The ones with the Andes mints were pretty with the mint green color but the ones with Yorks are equally pretty. When Maida Heatter's first book (the above-mentioned title) won the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame Award in 1998, she accepted her award on stage and began to toss out these brownies to the audience. Everybody clamored for one and went wild. The original recipe came from a local deli in her area and did not include the mints (that recipe is available in the first edition of this book). She tinkered with the recipe and added the mints which do not melt during baking. I've been itching to ...
9 comments
Read more

Mulattoes

Mulattoes Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.) , pg. 199. Of the hundreds of Maida Heatter cookie recipes, this may be the most famous. These are chunky but soft, extremely chocolaty,  full of nuts and chocolate chips. Sinfully delicious! They are easy to make. The trickiest part may be the baking time. After making them numerous times, I have learned to only bake them 10 or 11 minutes at the most, then remove them and allow them to sit on the hot baking pan for about 5 minutes. They will be extremely soft to the touch but eventually they firm up nicely.  I just use my hand mixer for these. Although the recipe states that it makes 18 large cookies, I find that the yield is slightly higher, even when making them fairly large. I use a tablespoon scoop to form the cookies. 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 3 oz. (3/4 stick) butter 1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour 1 tsp. baking pow...
12 comments
Read more

Frozen Chocolate Mousse

Source:  Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 2006 ed.) , pg. 228. Here is a dessert sure to make any chocoholic swoon. Silky and decadent, this frozen mousse is like a rich chocolate ice cream. It is really easy to make - all the folding required will give you a workout but it is worth it! The crust can be made with crushed wafer cookies or you could even buy a ready-made crust. If doing your own, the instructions say to apply the crumbs around the sides of the pan (use a springform pan) but I did not do this - I just made a bottom layer. You will have to run a sharp knife around the pan before releasing the catch on the pan. The mousse is soft (even after freezing) and it will need to be put back in the freezer as soon as possible after serving. Maida Heatter recommends covering the mousse with either whipped cream, strawberries or chocolate leaves. I did not do either, it looks lovely without a topping. Crust 8 oz. choc...
5 comments
Read more