by Stacey Torres

Created on: December 13, 2009

I am not certain where I first found this recipe for chocolate pound cake. However, over the years, I have tweaked it repeatedly to get a chocolate cake to my liking. Both moist and dense, it is smooth and creamy going down.

Chocolate Satin Pound Cake

1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup cake flour
1 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

2¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups unsalted butter, softened
2¼ cups sugar
4 large brown eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup sour cream

1 tub chocolate (regular; not fat free) chocolate yogurt

½ milk chocolate bar (about four squares), chopped

¼ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Liberally grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or large Bundt® pan.

Beat the butter and sugar until and fluffy. You may use a mixer, but my preferred method is to always use a wooden spoon with a large glass bowl. Add the eggs and beat well while adding. In a separate bowl, blend the vanilla, sour cream, yogurt and chopped candy bar.

Mix all of the dry ingredients, slowly adding them to the butter and sugar in three separate sets. While doing this, you will also add the sour cream, alternating with the dry ingredients – do not dump everything in at once! You must begin with the dry ingredients, and finally end with the dry ingredients. I have no idea why, but I have learned some time ago that baking – unlike cooking – is an exact science. This is how I learned this particular recipe.

Pour the batter in tube or Bundt® pan and bake for 70 minutes. Check the cake after 55 minutes, as all ovens vary. You must test the cake for doneness with either a cake tester, tooth pick of skewer. If it comes out clean, then it is cooked thoroughly.

Cool the cake for 30 minutes before un-molding it onto a cooling rack, at which time it should be completely cooled. Turn the cake onto a cake plate. The cake can then be placed in a refrigerator for 30 minutes before glazing. Glaze will cover a cake much more evenly if the warm glaze covers a cool cake.

Glaze:
8 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Place the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler. Add corn syrup and set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted and. Place cake on a wire rack over a tray lined with waxed paper. Pour the glaze over the cake.

White Chocolate Drizzle:
1 small bar of white chocolate or chocolate bark (the bar or bark white chocolate melts much better than the little chips).

Melt your white chocolate in a double boiler; never the microwave. Drizzle with a fork over the dark chocolate glaze, allowing it to drip down the sides.

Top with chopped pecans.

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