Chocolate Almond Swirl Pound Cake

This cake would be perfect as an Easter dessert, which is why I wanted to post it for The Novice Gardener’s Fiesta Friday #12.  What a great baked item to bring to a party!  I’ve made this cake a few times from the blog Get Off Your Butt and Bake.  She has some great recipes over there!

This cake was for my English department colleagues last week, and I literally tortured my family with the amazing smell of it baking and the gorgeous appearance of the cake after putting on the drizzled glaze.  It was a “look, don’t touch” or better yet “smell, don’t eat” situation.  They behaved themselves and I actually got to bring a few leftover pieces home for them as a reward.

This is not to say it wasn’t a hit in any way.  This cake is just simply divine.  It is a dense, pound cake with a subtle almond flavor.  The chocolate swirl in the middle can be as rich as you prefer — you just adjust the amount of cocoa powder you want to add to the batter.  This time I opted to make it very chocolately, but I’ve made it before with only 1/4 Cup of cocoa powder and it was just as good, but not as fudgy.

If you don’t have a bundt pan, you can certainly bake this cake up in two loaf pans, but you may need to adjust the baking time.  I love any opportunity I get to use my vintage bundt pan.  It is just so pretty and makes a gorgeous display.  See how pretty it is:

So, if you’d like to join the party and make this cake, here is what you need:

2 sticks of butter, softened

2 1/4 Cups of sugar

3 Cups of all-purpose flour

6 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

1 Cup sour cream

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 to 1/3 Cup cocoa powder

Ingredients for the glaze:

2 Tbs melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 Cups powdered sugar

milk to thin to a drizzling consistency

pinch of salt

Procedure:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour your pan(s).  If using loaf pans, you may want to put parchment paper in the bottoms.

Cream together you butter and sugar in a mixer.  Add the eggs, one at a time until incorporated.  Add the vanilla and almond extract and mix in.  In a separate bowl, mix together your flour, salt, and baking soda.  Alternating, add your sour cream and dry ingredients to the butter mixture until it is all incorporated.

Pour about 1/3 of the batter in the bottom of your prepared pan(s), making a well in the center.  Scoop out another third of the batter and set aside.  With the last third, add your cocoa.  If you add 1/4 Cup of cocoa, you will have a light chocolate center swirl.  If you opt to add a full 1/3 Cup of cocoa powder, you will have a center that looks like my picture — very dark and fudgy.  Either way, it is excellent!

Take your chocolate batter and spoon it into the well in your first layer.  Cover the chocolate layer up with your last 1/3 of the almond batter.  With a knife, gently make swirls in the batter, dragging the chocolate batter slightly into the almond areas.

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, make your glaze.  In a small bowl, mix together with a fork your powdered sugar, vanilla, melted butter and enough milk to bring this together and give it a good consistency for drizzling on top of the cake.  Add a pinch of salt after it is mixed together.

Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake (you can do this while slightly warm still, but it may run more) and feel free to dig in!  Such a beautiful, tasty cake that your whole family will love.