Chocolate Pound Cake Recipe

All Cakes Considered | Chronicle Books, 2009

Know some chocoholics? If they’re not in rehab, they’re going to become your very best friends when you bring in this baby. It’s another recipe Momma gave me. I made it for the “Morning Edition” overnight staff during the month after the 2000 presidential election, when we were still wondering who’d won: Bush or Gore. At 3 a.m., the cake was on the counter. At 3:16 it was gone. The cake would have lasted until 3:20, but Newscast’s Dave Mattingly had five pieces. He said one was for Carl Kasell, but I know that was a lie.–Melissa Gray

Special Equipment: One 10-inch tube pan

Hands-On Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 2 hours | Serve 20 to 32

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Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs

Directions

1. Position a rack so the cake will sit in the middle of the oven, and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper, and spray the sides and bottom with baking spray.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, dry whisk the flour, sugar, and cocoa together.
3. Gradually add the butter, shortening, and milk and beat on medium speed until smooth.
4. Add the baking powder and salt, and beat until incorporated.
5. Still on medium speed, add the vanilla extract and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a toothpick or thin knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan using our plate-over-pan method and flip it onto a cake rack. Continue cooling the cake.