Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake

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This chocolate sour cream pound cake is decadent, fudgy, and delightfully dense. And best of all, it's incredibly easy to make!

chocolate sour cream pound cake slices on white plates

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Ingredients
Instructions
FAQ
Other chocolate recipes you'll love
Baking in grams
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This chocolate sour cream pound cake is a riff of the classic buttery pound cake, but loaded up with chocolate and drenched in even more chocolate! My version doesn't actually have a pound of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar, but it definitely is heavy on the butter and sugar. Since this cake is meant to be dense in nature, it can be difficult to nail that perfect balance of dense texture and moist & flavorful. But this recipe, oh man. It's dense, fudgy, chocolatey, and moist. It's the most perfect chocolate pound cake on the block. And trust me, it's totally worth the chocolate coma.

chocolate sour cream pound cake with chocolate glaze cut into slices

Ingredients

All-Purpose Flour: You'll need just one cup of flour. I strongly encourage you to weigh your flour to avoid adding too much, which would result in a dry pound cake.
Cocoa Powder: I use a combination of dutch process and black cocoa powders, but you can use just dutch process if you'd like.
Leavener: All you need is baking powder for this recipe.
Butter: No, there isn't a whole of butter in this recipe, but there's still enough to get that classic buttery pound cake flavor!
Sugar: You'll need just granulated sugar.
Eggs: To achieve that signature dense pound cake texture, you'll need 4 whole eggs.
Sour Cream: Use full fat sour cream for optimum flavor and texture.
Heavy Cream: For the chocolate glaze, you'll need a half cup of heavy cream.
Chocolate: Use semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate for the chocolate glaze.

Instructions

This recipe is incredibly easy as it only requires a basic creaming method of butter and sugar, and alternating dry & wet ingredients at the end. Once the batter is made, sit back and relax as it bakes! Before you know it, you'll be enjoying a thick slice of chocolate heaven.

cocoa powders and flour mixed together in white bowl — Combine dry ingredients

chocolate sour cream pound cake batter in glass bowl — Make batter with the creaming method; Alternate dry & wet ingredients at the end

pound cake batter in loaf pan — Pour batter in pan and tap on the counter to release air bubbles

pound cake baked in loaf pan — Bake for about 1 hour 20 minutes

chocolate glaze being poured over chocolate pound cake

FAQ

Dutch Process Cocoa Powder vs Black Cocoa Powder

Dutch process cocoa powder is THE best cocoa powder for baking. Because it's neutralized with an alkalizing agent, it has a smoother flavor and creates the most fudgy and chocolatey baked goods! Black cocoa powder is similar to dutch process, but richer in flavor and darker in color. It is typically used in small amounts alongside another cocoa powder to enhance the color and flavor of the baked good. It smells like actual chocolate cake and is just magical to bake with!

How to make 2 ingredient chocolate glaze:

This chocolate glaze is a simple ganache made with heavy cream and chocolate. Typically, ganache is made by bringing the heavy cream to a simmer and then pouring over the chocolate. But since this is such a small amount, I find that it's easier to just heat the heavy cream in the microwave for about 30 seconds, then adding the chocolate and stirring until smooth. Be wary of over-heating the cream or chocolate or the ganache might split. When ganache splits, the fat solids separate and it appears grainy. If this happens, sometimes it can be fixed by adding a splash of cold heavy cream or small amount of butter.

Kitchen Equipment:

- Loaf pan: This recipe is made for a 9x5 loaf pan.
- Electric mixer: A stand mixer or a hand-held electric mixer is needed to properly cream the butter and sugar together.
- Kitchen scale: You'll need a kitchen scale to weigh all of your ingredients (read why below)!

How to store this chocolate pound cake:

Store this pound cake in an air-tight container at room temperature for 2-3 days. You can also wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag to store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

chocolate pound cake topped with a chocolate glaze

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double chocolate pound cake sliced on parchment

slice of chocolate pound cake with sour cream topped with chocolate ganache glaze

Baking in grams

All of the recipes on this blog are carefully developed to create incredibly delicious baked goods that you can easily recreate in your own kitchen with success. The only way this is possible is to standardize the way ingredients are measured - by weight. Volume measurements are extremely inaccurate and leave room for significant errors. Not all measuring cups are made equally, so your one cup of flour will be different from my one cup of flour. By providing precise measurements in grams (aside from minor ingredients, which are given in tsp/tbsp), I can ensure that you can make the recipe accurately and with less cleanup! All you need is this kitchen scale.

If this still isn't enough to convince you, I have provided volume measurements in the recipe card. If you are interested in understanding the conversions, this is the best conversion chart.

But trust me, once you try baking in grams you'll never turn back!

Happy baking! x

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