This Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake is rich, dense, super moist, and full of chocolate flavor. Finish with our quick and easy glaze and serve with fresh berries for a simple yet decadent dessert.
If you are a serious chocoholic, you could even nix the sugar glaze and top with this chocolate ganache or chocolate buttercream. Or, bake the pound cake and then cut into cubes and use it in a parfait or trifle.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake
This homemade chocolate pound cake uses cream cheese and cocoa powder, along with classic pound cake ingredients, to create a perfectly moist cake with rich chocolate flavor. Top with the simple sugar glaze included in the recipe below and serve with whipped cream, fresh berries or even a scoop of ice cream.
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You can bake your pound cake in a classic bundt pan, or make a chocolate pound cake loaf using loaf pans. Keep reading to find answers to frequently asked questions, follow our step-by-step directions, and let us know what you think.
And if chocolate cake is your thing, be sure to try our Chocolate Sheet Cake or our Coconut Filled Chocolate Bundt Cake.
Key Ingredients
- Butter – make sure you use real butter and not margarine. Your butter should be soft so it’s best to pull it out to room temperature in advance. If you forget, you can microwave it for about 10 seconds at a time until softened but not melted.
- Cream Cheese – this adds moisture, flavor and great texture to the pound cake. Make sure it is softened at room temperature, just like the butter.
- Eggs – any kind of large eggs will work. It’s best if they are room temperature so that they don’t cause the butter mixture to seize up. You can run them under warm water, too.
- Flour – either all-purpose flour or cake flour work best for pound cake.
- Cocoa Powder – using a high quality cocoa powder makes a huge difference in the finished flavor. I like to use Ghirardelli, Guittard or Valrhona brand, but any type of premium cocoa powder will work great.
- Milk – whole milk is best, although 2% makes a good substitute.
Glaze for Pound Cake
- Powdered Sugar – this adds sweetness without any grittiness.
- Milk – for best results, use whole milk or 2%.
- Vanilla Extract – you could also substitute a chocolate extract or even a coffee extract would taste great.
How to Make Chocolate Pound Cake
- Cream the butter and sugar mixture. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, whip together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes.
- Mix the batter. Slowly add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary to make the mixture smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa powder. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until almost completely combined. Finally, add the milk, vanilla extract and salt and mix until combined..
- Bake. Transfer to a greased and floured 9-10 cup bundt pan and bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool. Once finished, remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Put a plate or serving dish on the top of the bundt cake pan and flip the cake onto the serving plate to cool completely.
- Make the glaze. In the meantime, make the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract in a medium bowl. Add more milk if necessary to reach your desired consistency.
- Glaze and serve. Drizzle the glaze over the Chocolate Pound Cake and let it set up before slicing to serve with a dollop of whipped cream, fresh raspberries or a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
The most surefire way to know whether or not your pound cake has finished baking is to test with an instant read thermometer. Once it has reached an internal temperature of 210 degrees F, it’s finished baking and you should pull it out of the oven. If you don’t have a thermometer, the other easy way to tell is to stick a toothpick into the very center and if it comes out clean, your cake is finished baking.
You’ll often see pound cakes baked in a bundt pan or a round tube cake pan. Not only do they make an excellent presentation, but they also give more surface area which spreads the heat more evenly around the extremely dense cake batter. You can also bake in loaf pans, filling them up about 2/3 full. Just keep in mind that the bake time will need to be adjusted.
The first secret to moist pound cake is making sure you mix the ingredients correctly. You want your butter and cream cheese to be softened at room temperature so that they will cream properly with the sugar. Then, make sure your eggs are also at room temperature so that they will create an emulsion in the batter when added.
If your eggs are cold, the butter will seize up when added, rather than emulsifying. This can cause problems when the butter-heavy cake batter hits the oven because if it’s not properly homogenized, the butter can leak out taking a lot of the moisture with it.
The other secret is adding extra dairy in the form of cream cheese, sour cream or buttermilk. This extra dairy adds flavor and moisture to the pound cake.
Storing and Freezing
- Room Temperature: wrap any unfinished pound cake in aluminum foil, or any airtight container, and store for up to 2 days at room temperature.
- Refrigerator: pound cake can also be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Freezing: wrap your unglazed Chocolate Pound Cake well with plastic wrap and aluminum foil then place in a larger freezer bag. Store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Once you are ready to eat, pull from the freezer and store at room temperature, or in the fridge, overnight. Glaze at least an hour before eating so it has a chance to set.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 3 cups sugar
- 6 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Butter and flour a 9-10 cup bundt cake pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, whip together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, or about 3-5 minutes.
- Slowly add the eggs, mixing after each addition and scraping down the sides as necessary to make the mixture smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and cocoa powder. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until almost completely combined. Finally, add the milk, vanilla extract and salt and mix until combined.
- Transfer to the prepared cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Once finished, remove the cake from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Put a plate or serving dish on the top of the bundt cake pan and flip the cake onto the serving plate to cool completely.
- In the meantime, make the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Add more milk if necessary to reach the desired consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over the pound cake and let it set up before slicing to serve with a dollop of whipped cream, fresh raspberries or a scoop of ice cream. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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This easy Chocolate Pound Cake recipe is rich, dense, moist and chocolatey. It’s topped with a sugary glaze and is a perfect classic dessert to make all year long.
