Chocolate and Cream cheese Pound Cake

Cake never asks dumb questions. Cake understands. Skip to the recipe here.

When I was in college, I took waaaay too many baking classes in my free time to figure out if this was the right career part for me (Spoiler alert: It was). One of the first things I made in them was a chocolate brownie with a cream cheese swirl. It was the best thing I've ever had. Gooey brownie with cream cheese swirled into the batter. Ouuuuf.

This brownie made me think. I wanted to create a light loaf cake (the kind papa has been craving lately) along with some cream cheese frosting baked right inside of it. And so, it began. The constant trial and error that our bakery is frankly, now used to. Finally, we had the perfect, chocolate-y yet light pound cake along with smooth cream cheese baked inside it. It tasted DIVINE.

Pound cakes are relatively forgiving and easy. Just make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature, you're not over mixing the batter and your oven is at the right temperature and you're good to go!

Can you see the pretty crack on top of our pound cake? This always happens with loaf cakes because the exterior is always cooked faster than the interiors. Relax, its a good thing. People actually pipe some butter in the middle of most loaf cakes to ensure they get that amazing crack.

This recipe is pretty close to perfect, but please feel free to add more chocolate/nuts/coffee/cream cheese swirl or even warm ganache on top.

Pound Cake 101:

• The better the chocolate, the better the cake: Again, don't skimp out on baking chocolate bars (Couverture chocolate, if you can?) as well as good quality cocoa.

• Every oven has its own personality: I would give you an approximate time at which you would have to remove the cake, but can take 5 minutes more/less, depending on your oven. If you’re a regular baker, please invest in an oven thermometer; it's a game changer.

• Always weigh your ingredients: The only one this that is non-negotiable in terms of equipment is a weighing scale. It’s the only thing that ensures that any product you make is standardized. Measuring cups, as much as they try can never give you the same product every time you bake it.

• Let it cool: once out of the oven, let the pound cake come down to room temperature and then stick it in the fridge before you cut and serve.

Chocolate and Cream cheese Pound Cake

The Equipment

• Two 8 inch loaf tins

• Parchment Paper

• Large bowls

• Whisk (We prefer hand mixers or stand mixer though)

• Spatula

The Ingredients

For the pound cake

• 184g butter, at room temperature

• 150g castor sugar

• 3 eggs

• 2 teaspoons (5g) vanilla bean paste/extract

• 80g dark chocolate, melted

• 120g flour

• 1 ½ teaspoon (3.75g) baking powder

• 30g cocoa

• 1 teaspoon (2g) sea salt

• 45g milk

For the cream cheese filling:

• 100g cream cheese

• 25g yogurt

• 25g castor sugar

• 1g vanilla bean paste/extract

The Directions

For the pound cake

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

2. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.

3. Grease and line two 8 inch loaf cake pan with parchment paper.

4. Whisk together the butter as well as the castor sugar until creamy.

5. Add the eggs and whisk until it comes together.

6. Add the cooled down chocolate and whisk.

7. In another bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, sea salt and baking powder. Then, the mixed, dry ingredients into the egg mixture.

8. Whisk milk to this mix. Set Aside.

For the cream cheese filling:

1. In another bowl, add the cream cheese, yogurt, sugar and vanilla bean paste and whisk until the batter comes together.

Assembly

1. Pour half of the cake batter into the lined cake pan, add some dollops of the cream cheese mix. Top it off with more cake batter, then cream cheese swirl. Finally, using toothpick or a fork and swirl through the batter.

2. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

3. Set aside to cool.

4. Slice and Enjoy!