Espresso & Black Cocoa Pound Cake

July 20, 2023

Pound cake is already famous for its dense, decadent vibe, but this espresso and black cocoa pound cake is on another level completely…

The texture of this pound cake is right on track… dense, but moist with a tight crumb. The flavors, however, are bold, rich and luxurious with pronounced coffee flavors and intense notes of chocolate. This pound cake is special and deserves to be enjoyed alongside a cup of espresso with a dollop of whipped cream and a look of euphoria on your face.

Let’s get it started…

You will need 3 special ingredients for this cake: black cocoa, espresso powder and some strong freshly brewed coffee. I keep all of these items on standby in my kitchen, as I use them frequently, but if you don’t have them in your pantry, they should all be easy to find on Amazon.

Coffee and chocolate are one of my very favorite pairings. Adding coffee or espresso to chocolate desserts helps to bring out the best in the chocolate, so even if you are not a huge fan of coffee on its own, you may love what it does to your chocolate desserts.

The first step in making this cake is to brew a pot of good strong coffee.

While the coffee is brewing, combine 8 tablespoons of softened butter with 1 cup of granulated sugar in a large bowl and mix until fluffy.

Add 1/3 cup of plain whole milk greek yogurt, 3 large eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix until completely combined.

Add 1 cup of all purpose flour, 2/3 cup of black cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of espresso powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder and mix until mostly combined.

Add 1/2 cup of strong coffee and carefully mix until the ingredients are just combined.

Transfer the batter into a well greased 6 cup bundt pan. This batter can also be baked in a 8.5″x 4.5″ loaf pan. The batter should fill the baking dish about 80% of the way full to allow a little room for the cake to rise as it bakes.

Bake your pound cake in a 325 degree oven for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick will come out clean from the center of the cake.

Transfer the pan onto a cooling rack for about 5 minutes before inverting the cake out of the pan directly onto the cooling rack. This cake needs to cool fully before drizzling with chocolate ganache. If you do not want to add the ganache, feel free to dig right in, but I assure you that the ganache is worth waiting for….

A shiny, silky chocolate ganache is so easy to make. Simply pour 1/4 cup of hot heavy cream over 1/3 cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate, let it sit for about 5 minutes and then whisk until smooth and glossy.

I know that my husband loves chocolate ganache, so I usually double this amount and spoon some of the excess over his slices. It’s a bold move and you are risking a chocolate overdose, but he likes to live life on the edge, so double the recipe if you’d like to have a little extra ganache for serving.

Spoon the glossy ganache over your cooled pound cake and give it a few minutes to firm up a bit. I like dusting the ganache very lightly with confectioners sugar, not to add additional sweetness (because it is definitely sweet enough!), but to add a little dimension of color to this dark, shiny beauty.

The only thing left to do is to slice your pound cake into wedges and enjoy!

This espresso and black cocoa pound cake is something else. It has elevated flavors and tastes fancy. Although it is pretty simple to make, it tastes like a dessert that you would order in a restaurant with a dress code. The richness of the chocolate and coffee and its dense, moist crumb are after dinner perfection.

Dragging a forkful of this pound cake through a little bit of cool whipped cream will make you very happy that you made this cake for yourself and if you happened to share this dessert with friends then get ready for compliments, because they will be coming in droves.

Buon appetito!

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