Easy to make and even easier to transport and serve at a cookout, pound cake is one of my favorites. I love slicing it up and serving with ice cream and fresh fruit. This recipe makes a delectable chocolate and vanilla swirled cake that will be hard for anyone to resist. I love baking a few and stashing one away in the freezer to take to a friend's house, work, or just to have around to pull out if I need a dessert at the last minute. Try serving this one with chocolate Guinness ice cream, strawberry buttermilk sherbet, or mango sorbet. You could also try drizzling the plate with some chocolate or raspberry sauce, but to be honest this cake is amazing as-is. Moist and full of flavor, you'll have a hard time not just eating it all yourself.
The trick with getting a good marbled effect is not to try too hard. A knife and a few good swipes through the batter should get you the effect you want without making it a mess.
Ingredients
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sour cream
4 oz/ 120 g bittersweet chocolate, melted
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 325F.
Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a different bowl. Blend into the butter mixture, alternating with the sour cream, starting and ending with the flour. Blend the mixture well after each addition. Divide the batter in half, putting each half into a separate bowl. Stir the cooled melted chocolate into one half of the batter so that you have one batter that is chocolate, one that is vanilla.
Grease and flour a 9x5 inch loaf pan, tapping the bottom of the pan over the sink to get rid of any excess flour.
Spoon the batters into the pan, alternating chocolate and vanilla so you get a marbled effect as pictured above. Using a butter knife, swirl the batters slightly. You need to be careful how much you do this or you’ll just have a big mess. One good swirl through the loaf should do.
Bake for 60-70 minutes, until a skewer stuck in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for about an hour before turning it out to cool completely.
Makes one loaf, of 12-16 slices
Note: if you aren’t sure about the size of your loaf pan since they vary a lot in size, check to see of it can hold 6 cups (or 1.5 liters). If so, this recipe will work great.
Adapted from Anna Olson’s Back to Baking
Want some more summertime desserts? Why not try blueberry crumble bars or chocolate ganache cupcakes?
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