Moist Chocolate Pound Cake in a Loaf Pan

5 from 28 votes

Published by Rebecca Eisenberg ⁠— August 1, 2023 (updated December 10, 2025) — 42 Comments

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Today I'm spilling the cocoa beans on my best classic chocolate pound cake recipe. It's velvety, moist, and decadent, with simple ingredients like unsweetened cocoa powder, whole milk, brown sugar, and sour cream (!!!) for extra tenderness.

It bakes in a standard-sized loaf pan and the chocolate flavor is so rich and dreamy there's no frosting needed — just a simple dusting of powdered sugar to finish and this chocolate pound cake is ready to serve.

a cross section of chocolate pound cake dusted with powdered sugar.

A few weeks ago I shared my recipe for a classic old-fashioned vanilla pound cake. Then I shared my best strawberry pound cake recipe. Of course the next logical step was to complete the trio of classic Neapolitan flavors and develop a chocolate pound cake too!

Besides, chocolate is my favorite dessert flavor, it was getting embarrassing being a baking blogger and not having a simple chocolate cake recipe to share!

One of my chocolate cake pet peeves is when the chocolate flavor comes more from a rich chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting, rather than from the chocolate flavor of the cake itself. A lot of chocolate cake recipes on their own, without chocolate frosting, quite frankly, can be kind of bland!

So when I developed this recipe, my top priority was to make a chocolate cake that could absolutely stand alone — no frosting needed. I dug into my pastry school notes and read up on the science of chocolate; I did not want this to be a boring chocolate cake.

To that end, my recipe uses simple, easily accessible ingredients and produces a loaf of chocolate pound cake that is super rich and moist with a dense, velvety, almost fudgy crumb and an intensely, unforgettably chocolate flavor.

two slices of chocolate pound cake on a small white dessert plate.

Grocery List + Ingredient Notes

Here are the ingredients that you'll need to make this chocolate pound cake recipe! See recipe card for quantities.

all of the ingredients measured and labeled.

Whole Milk - For blooming the cocoa powder. The fat content is important so make sure you're using whole milk.

Cocoa Powder - This recipe uses unsweetened natural cocoa powder like the classic box of Hershey's you can find in most grocery stores. Dark cocoa powder or Dutch process cocoa powders will also work here.

Sour Cream - Full fat sour cream works best here — you really need the fat to make the chocolate cake tender and moist. You won't get the same results with low fat options.

🍽 Mise en place (aka "the setup")

Mise en place is a French culinary term that literally translates to "putting in place."

It basically means: Measure all your ingredients and make sure you have all the right tools and equipment ready to go when you need them before you start working.

This can make a huge difference in a) how enjoyable you find the baking and cooking process and b) the success of your recipe!

Here's the mise en place you'll need before you begin this recipe:

Bring the butter to room temperature. To do this quickly, microwave the wrapped sticks of cold butter for about 4 seconds per side. The butter should still feel slightly cool to the touch but soft enough to press a finger into, but not so soft that it's greasy or melty — about 65°F.
Bring the eggs to room temperature. Submerge the eggs in hot water for about 10-15 minutes prior to mixing. This helps them emulsify into the butter and sugar. If they're cold, they'll cool down the butter, and the batter will break and separate.
Sift cocoa powder. I wouldn't tell you to sift something if it wasn't important. Cocoa powder is naturally very lumpy and if you don't sift it, those lumps will end up in your cake.

sifting cocoa powder into a small glass bowl using a small wire mesh strainer.

My Secret: Blooming the Cocoa Powder

Cocoa powder is naturally very drying. Simply adding it to or replacing some of the flour in a vanilla cake and making no other adjustments produces a cake that has an unpleasantly chalky texture. It needs more liquid to hydrate the cocoa powder.

So in this recipe I add the cocoa powder with the wet ingredients (whole milk and full-fat sour cream) which add lots of moisture and tenderness to the cake crumb.

This process of "blooming" the cocoa powder in whole milk hydrates the cocoa powder, giving it a richer, more intense flavor. Mixing the bloomed cocoa powder with sour cream provides extra fat, which makes the cake moist and tender.

To bloom the cocoa powder, warm a pot of whole milk on the stove to "scald" it — bringing it to a temperature just below boiling. Milk boils at 212°F, scalded milk is somewhere around 170°-180°F.

Swirl the milk until small bubbles form around the edges of the pot; when you tilt the pot you should see lots of tiny active bubbles on the bottom.

whisking cocoa powder into scalded milk in a small pot.

Turn off the heat and add the sifted cocoa powder all at once, whisking until a thick paste forms.

whisking sour cream into the bloomed cocoa powder mixture.

Then whisk the bloomed cocoa powder into the sour cream until well combined and set it aside.

IMPORTANT: Do this step first so the chocolate has time to cool slightly before you add it to the cake batter.

My Simple Chocolate Cake Batter

To make this chocolate pound cake batter, we're using the creaming method of mixing, which I wrote about in my vanilla pound cake recipe. You can read more about it in detail in that post because it's basically the same process up until adding the chocolate sour cream mixture.

First you'll cream the butter and sugar together until aerated, scraping down the bowl several times throughout (~5 minutes). Don't rush it!

one egg added to the creamed butter and sugar in the bowl.

Then add the eggs one at a time, beating for 60 seconds and scraping down the bowl well after each one.

the cake batter after one third of the flour has been added. streaks of flour are visible in the batter and around the walls of the bowl.

Then, add one third of the dry ingredients on low speed. Wait for it to incorporate, then scrape down the bowl and beater.

Next, add approximately half of the bloomed cocoa and sour cream mixture. Mix on low speed just until combined, then scrape down the sides of the bowl.

the second half of the chocolate mixture added to the chocolate cake batter before being mixed in.

Continue alternating adding another third of the dry ingredients, then the remaining half of the wet ingredients, etc. Always mix on low speed, always scrape down the sides of the bowl before moving on.

the bowl of chocolate cake batter with a purple spatula in it.

When just a few streaks of visible flour in the batter and on the walls of the bowl remain, stop mixing with the mixer and switch to a spatula. Finish mixing the batter by hand to prevent over mixing.

Alternating adding the dry and wet ingredients on low speed and scraping down the bowl between additions helps prevent over mixing. An over mixed cake will be dense and tough, you don't want that!

You'll end up with a luscious, thick, and fluffy chocolate cake batter that has a texture almost like a whipped chocolate frosting. Super dreamy and super smooth.

smoothing the chocolate cake batter out in the pan.

Use a mini offset spatula to press the batter down into all the corners and edges of the pan then smooth it out across the top.

a line of thinly sliced butter vertically down the center of the cake pan.

Cut a ⅛" sliver off the end of a cold stick of butter and slice it into thin sticks. Arrange them in a line down the center of the pan.

This line of butter step is technically optional but will help control how the top of your chocolate pound cake bakes. It will ensure the top of the cake cracks open in the middle.

It's hard to tell when a chocolate cake is done because you can't see any browning. So a few crumbs (not wet batter) clinging to the cake tester is the best way to know. You really don't want to over bake a pound cake or it will come out dry.

Some carryover cooking will happen in the pan, so err on the side of pulling it out a minute or two too soon.

a baked chocolate pound cake in a loaf pan with a crack down the middle of the cake. an instant read thermometer is next to it on a cooling rack with a few crumbs clinging to the probe.

The chocolate pound cake will be very tall and domed when it first comes out of the oven, but will flatten out a bit as it cools.

NOTE: The cake must be completely cool before you add the powdered sugar topping or it will melt into the cake.

dusting powdered sugar over the top of the chocolate cake.

Dusting your chocolate pound cake with powdered sugar is optional, but I really like the way it looks. The sweetness is also really nice with the richness of the chocolate cake!

USA Pan Bakeware Aluminized Steel Loaf Pan, 1 Pound

Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.5 x 2.75. Durable construction with corrugated surface for optimal airflow. Non-stick finish is PTFE, PFOA and BPA free.

Amazon

Crate & Barrel

Williams Sonoma

My Best Practical Tips and Recipe Notes

If the cake batter mixture begins to look split or curdled as you're adding the eggs, don't sweat it too much. It will come back together when you add the flour.
When in doubt, SCRAPE DOWN THE BOWL. If it feels like you're stopping too often to scrape down the bowl, that means you're doing it right. You don't want any ingredients to go unincorporated or you'll end up with large air bubbles or clumps in your final cake.
I use metal binder clips to help hold the parchment paper sling in place on the pan. The binder clips are optional, but keep the paper from folding in on top of the cake in the oven. Use metal binder clips only for this. Do not use plastic clips. I repeat, no plastic in the oven!!!
If you do the line of butter down the center of the cake, you may notice some white yellow coloring around the crack in the top of the cake — the powdered sugar dusting helps hide this!

📖 Recipe