Triple Chocolate Pound Cake

By Dolphl1970

Ingredients

• ■3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• ■1/2 cup sour cream OR 3 to 4 oz. cream cheese (almost half or half of an 8-oz. block), softened
• ■1 1/2 cups sugar
• ■3 eggs
• ■1/2 to 1 Tablespoon half & half (if you’re using 3/4 cup cocoa powder–see below–use 1 Tablespoon of half & half)
• ■1/2 to 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use 3/4 cup for a richer chocolate taste; I used Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder)
• ■1 1/2 cups flour
• ■3/4 to 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan. In large bowl, cream together the softened butter and sour cream (or cream cheese). Add sugar and blend well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one. Add half & half, blending well; then stir in cocoa powder and mix well. Add the flour and blend well; then fold in the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. Put batter into the prepared 9×5-inch loaf pan and bake at 325 degrees for 70-80 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean or almost clean (because it’s so dense and fudgy, the toothpick may not come out entirely clean; my baking time for the sour cream version was 75 minutes and 80-85 minutes for the cream cheese version). Cool in pan about 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely (you may need to loosen the upper edges of the cake a little with a knife; then the cake will come out of the pan very easily). While the cake is cooling, you can make the frosting…

RICH CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:

■1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
■2 cups powdered sugar
■1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
■1 Tbsp. half & half
■1/4– 1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, for garnish
Cream the softened butter and powdered sugar. Then add in the cocoa powder and blend well. Add 1 Tbsp. half & half and mix well (if you’d rather have a thinner consistency, just add more half & half). When pound cake is completely cool, spoon all of the frosting on top of the cake and spread out to cover the top–you’ll have a nice thick layer of frosting! Then garnish with the mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, sprinkling down the center of the cake