Chocolate Pound Cake

For the hubs birthday this year, he requested this delicious chocolate pound cake.  This is a family recipe that was sort of a birthday tradition in his house growing up.  My wonderful mother in law gave me the recipe for the cake, but unfortunately life became super busy and I did’t get a chance to make it. 😦 Brian’s birthday fell on the same weekend we were moving into our house, so we decided it would be much easier to just go out and celebrate.

Well… I just couldn’t get over not making him a birthday cake.  Everyone needs a cake to celebrate!  So, here I am a month later with this delicious treat!  Happy Birthday, Brian!

Let me just start by mentioning that it is a little intimidating to make a cake for someone that you know they love, but you have never made before!  My mother in law has made this cake so many times (and I knew from first hand experience that it was delicious), so I really didn’t want to mess it up!  Thankfully, I got the seal of approval!

To begin, I creamed the softened butter.

Then, I added in the crisco and mixed until the two were well combined.

Next up, sugar!  I gradually mixed in the sugar in about 1/2 cup increments.

Once the sugar is incorporated, mix in the eggs one at a time.

Now it’s time to work on the dry ingredients.  I combined the remaining dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, & cocoa – in a separate bowl and whisked them all together.  You could also sift all of these ingredients to make sure you don’t have any clumps.

To finish the cake batter, I alternated adding the dry ingredients and milk until everything was combined.  The very last step is to mix in the vanilla.

I baked the cake in an angle food pan because that is what I had handy.  I’m sure it would work well in just about any pound cake pan.  Just be sure to grease and lightly flour the sides before pouring in the batter.

Just look at all of that tasty crust on top!  The icing recipe starts off with melted butter.  That was a little different for me, but it made for a nice icing that was extremely easy to spread on the cake.

After putting the melted butter in my mixing bowl, I alternated adding in milk and a powdered sugar & cocoa combo.  That’s it!  Super easy!

I planned on flipping the cake over so I could ice the flat side of the cake as the top.  As soon as I flipped the cake, a bunch of the crust fell off. Finally, after much deliberation, I decided to ice the cake right side up.  My cake baked up a lot, and it just wasn’t worth it to cut off a whole bunch of cake to have a flat surface on the top and bottom.

This is a tasty cake.  It’s not overly sweet, so if you don’t like to be assaulted by sugar, this is the cake for you!  The cake itself has a very light chocolate flavor, and a thin layer of icing adds just the right amount of sweetness.

Mmm.  Delish.

Family recipes are the best. Tried and true!

Scroll down just a tad more and you will find this recipe!  I hope you all enjoy!  If you need a last minute cake to bring to an Fourth of July celebration tomorrow, try this one out!

Head over to Fiesta Friday, and I’m sure you can find even more fun recipes to try out for the 4th!

• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound butter (2 sticks), softened
• 1/2 cup Crisco
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° and grease and lightly flour pan.
2. Cream together butter and Crisco.
3. Gradually mix in sugar.
4. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. In a separate bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, and cocoa.
6. Alternate mixing in dry ingredients and milk until combined.
7. Mix in vanilla.
8. Pour cake batter into prepared pan.
9. Bake for 1 1/2 hours as 325°.
10. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
11. Remove cake from pan and let cool completely on wire rack.
12. If desired, frost with Chocolate Icing.
13. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound butter (1 stick), melted
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 5 tablespoons cocoa
• 6 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Add melted butter to mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cocoa.
3. Alternate mixing in powdered sugar mixture and milk until all ingredients are added and icing is spreading consistency.
4. Ice Chocolate Pound Cake!