Chocolate Pound Cake with Fudge Glaze
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This easy chocolate pound cake recipe is an old-fashioned Southern favorite that’s always moist and perfect for any occasion. Pair your chocolate pound cake with glaze for the ultimate chocolate dessert.
I have received a lot of requests for recipes in the past, but Grandmama’s chocolate pound cake with glaze is the one cake that I am asked to make most often. It’s just a good old-fashioned chocolate pound cake recipe from my Grandmama that is sublimely soft and moist on its own. But when you add Grandmama’s rich and decadent fudge glaze (what the old folks called boiled icing), it becomes a favorite to all, especially chocolate lovers.
So, what is boiled icing? Traditionally, this means you make it in a pot on top of the oven and it is brought to a boil to thicken it. Truly it is very much like making fudge, but we use a timer instead of a thermometer to trust it gets to the right temperature.
Have you ever had your granny make one of those cakes that when she cut into it, the icing cracked and broke off in huge fudge chunks? THIS is THAT icing! I make a peanut butter version of it, too.
It’s just a good old timeless homemade chocolate cake recipe that’s made using simple ingredients you probably already have sitting in your kitchen. I hope you get to try this cake’s melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness soon.
Recipe Ingredients
Chocolate Pound Cake
- Milk
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar
- Baking powder
- Vanilla extract
- Cocoa
- 3 sticks of unsalted butter
- 5 eggs
Chocolate Fudge Icing
- Milk
- Sugar
- Cocoa
- Unsalted butter
- Shortening
- Vanilla extract
- Salt
Now let’s get to baking…
First, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Then grease and flour your pan.
How to Grease a Cake Pan To Keep Batter From Sticking
What I do is fold a paper towel, put it over my hand and dip it into the shortening, then smear it all around. Take a bit of flour and pour it into the pan and move your pan around, patting it a bit, to get the flour to coat the sides. Then I turn it upside down and shake out the excess flour into the trash can.
Cream butter (which should be at room temperature) and sugar with mixer until light and fluffy. Above is what “light and fluffy” looks like.
In a separate bowl, stir together the baking powder, flour, and cocoa powder.
Add vanilla to milk.
Alternately add milk and dry ingredients to the creamed butter and sugar mixture, mixing after each addition.
Add eggs, one at a time, to the while still running the mixer.
Spoon chocolate pound cake batter into the pan and spread it out a bit.
Place this in the center of the oven and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Turn out onto cooling rack. Let cool completely while mixing up the icing.
How To Make Fudge Glaze
Place milk, sugar, butter, shortening, and salt in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.
Stir continuously while bringing to a boil.
Once it reaches a rolling boil, stop stirring and allow it to boil on its own for 2 minutes.
Remove the chocolate fudge icing from heat.
Add cocoa powder and vanilla.
Stir until well blended.
Keep stirring icing a minute or two until it cools just a bit. I sometimes stick the bottom of my saucepan in a bowl of cool water to speed the process.
Now act quickly!
Use a large spoon to spoon the icing over the chocolate cake or just pour directly from your saucepan. It will begin to set up rather quickly.
Allow the cake to sit until the icing hardens a bit.
Dig in and enjoy this chocolate bundt cake recipe from the old days!
Storage
- I recommend storing leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can then transfer any remaining slices to the fridge, where they will last another 3 days.
- You can also store cooled slices of cake in an airtight container (or double wrapped) in the freezer for up to two months. Thaw in the fridge or at room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes
- Make sure all ingredients for this are at room temperature before you begin.
- If you want to skip the chocolate glaze, I’ll forgive you! Here are some other serving suggestions:
- Serve the chocolate pound cake with a dusting of powdered sugar.
- Opt for a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of syrup.
- Serve with some fresh berries.
- If this isn’t enough chocolate flavor for you, add a cup of semisweet chocolate chips to your chocolate pound cake batter!
- I recommend using natural unsweetened cocoa powder, regular cocoa, or Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
- To know if your chocolate bundt cake is cooked, insert a toothpick in the center, between the inner and outer edges. if it comes out clean, you’re good to go!
Recipe FAQs
What do I do if I don’t have a bundt pan?
Fear not! This chocolate pound cake with glaze tastes delicious no matter the pan you choose. You can instead use 2 8-inch cake pans or 3 6-inch cake pans. Just keep an eye on your cakes, as they might cook faster in separate pans. You can also use a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
You might also enjoy these other delicious cake recipes:
Easy Birthday Cake Recipe From Scratch
Fresh Strawberry Cake With Cream Cheese Icing
Ingredients
Chocolate Pound Cake
- 1 1/2 cups butter
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 5 eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
Fudge Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 7 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons shortening
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup cocoa
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour bundt pan and set aside.
- Cream butter in a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.1 1/2 cups butter, 3 cups sugar, 5 eggs
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Measure milk and stir vanilla into it. Add milk and flour mixture alternately to the cake batter in the mixing bowl, mixing after each addition.1/2 cup cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup milk, 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Pour cake mix into the prepared pan and bake for one hour and 20 minutes. Let the chocolate cake cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan and allowing it to cool completely before adding glaze.
Fudge Glaze
- For the glaze, combine the sugar, cocoa, milk, shortening, margarine, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once it reaches a rolling boil, allow it to boil without stirring for two minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stir until cooled just slightly.1 1/2 cups sugar, 7 tablespoons whole milk, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons shortening, 2 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Spoon over the cooled cake.
Nutrition
Christy, Christy, Christy…… This cake is just wet your pants good. OMYGOODNESS it is just terrrific. The glaze took the cake ove the top. I am so excited that it turned out so good. My MIL has already had a piece and we are browsing through your site as I type.
Christy, I made this beautiful cake. And beautiful it turned out. I havent dove into the cake yet. I made this for my Mother in Law she is arriving today. Me and my oldest son made the cake last night and then this morning we did the glaze. I just made it and poured it all over the top.
Your tip of placing the bowl in cold water to help cool it down really worked. I stared pouring the glaze and your not kidding it does set up quick. It’s so pretty my dh came down the stairs this morning and said ummm I can smell chocolate. Ü
I hope she arrives soon so i can have piece of this cake UGH!!!!!!
Christie: YES!!! YAY!!!
I’m so glad!
Oh, and you know what you could do? Since whole milk is not something you normally use, it would likely go bad in your house and thats just a waste anyway. How about buying canned evaporated milk to use in recipes that call for whole milk? Then you have it on hand and it is shelf stable so no going bad or guilt from having to throw it away!
I’m so thrilled that you liked it!!!!!!
Thank you SO MUCH for letting me know!
I am glad Christie mentioned the Splenda and the milk. Then my next thought was, ‘what about evaporated milk’? and you answered that too. It is so good to be able to read feedback and get answers too! 🙂
My grandma passed and noone had written down her chocolate icing recipe and this icing seems the closest to what I had watched her make. I am going to try it and I will let you know. She is missed so much and you bring her to my mind with so many of your recipes. Thanks for sharing so much more than your recipe’s and your own memories. 🙂
Christy, I’m glad you said you can use evaporated milk if you don’t have whole milk. I only have skim milk and use it in cooking when I need to. My husband LOVES gravy, any kind, so I make him milk gravy and I use skim milk. Now I will have to get some evaporated milk so I will have it on hand when I make mini donuts for my granddaughters.
Ok I just finished my 2nd attempt at this one with real sugar this time and my family is still ooooing and ahhhing. It’s sooo good. My Mom says I will have to make this for her church homecoming in a couple of weeks.
I still didn’t have any whole milk so I used the skim and you could tell in the frosting. I will have to get some whole milk and try it again soon. This time to try and help it out (with the skim milk because it wasn’t as sweet and rich as it should be) I filled the center with strawberry pie filling and sprinkled pawdered sugar on top all around. It was beautiful…I’m so excited. Everyone loves it. Thanks for the great recipe and the easy to follow instructions.
Hey Christie! Its so good to hear from you!!
Unfortunately, Splenda can’t be substituted equally for sugar in baked goods recipes, such as breads and cakes. Sugar melts and helps retain moisture in recipes whereas in order to substitute Splenda you must work out a means of adding more liquids as well. Getting the rations correct to yield a good result is pretty difficult and so I just recommend that sugar be used when baking.
However, you can substitute Splenda for sugar in “wet” desserts such as banana pudding and sweet potato pie, as I do just about every time I make them.
Also, I would use whole milk when making this cake or any other baked good that calls for milk. Whole milk has fat in it and a richness of flavor that the outcome relies on. The fat helps it to maintain it’s moisture and tenderness.
I’m so glad you commented and asked such a great question! If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
Now, if you make that cake with whole milk and sugar, get ready. Back in my making-cakes-to-sell days, this one was requested weekly by this one sweet little old lady. She took one look at the recipe and dubbed it “The Walking Coronary” but kept ordering them like clockwork. She and her mother couldn’t resist!
Once, my mother was going on a quilting retreat and I offered to bake something for her to take and share, as most of the ladies do. I made her this cake.
She called wanting me to give her the recipe for it and saying that the ladies were just loving it and couldn’t believe it was low fat.
“LOW FAT??????? Mama, are you crazy? That thing has THREE sticks of butter, THREE cups of sugar, and FIVE eggs and that isn’t even counting the glaze!” We had a great laugh out of that one! Apparently, Mama had gotten my cake recipes confused. 😀
Darn it if it isn’t worth it though!!!
Oh what I was going to ask…Can I use Splenda in the chocolate pound cake. I definitely did something wrong because it looked beautiful but it did not taste wonderful. Also I used skim milk so I thought that might have made a difference. Any way I think I’m going to try it again with real sugar. It looked and smelled so good and the batter was scrumptious so I am thinking it was the Splenda. Let me know what you think.
On this recipe for Chocolate Pound Cake with Fudge Glaze on your site, it tells you to add the cocoa and vanilla after the glaze has boiled; but the printed recipe tells you to add the cocoa with the sugar, milk, shortening, margarine and salt and add the vanilla after it is removed from the heat. Which is the best way to do this?
Christy this cake looks fabulous. I have to get some cocoa powder at the store. I thought i had some but ran out after i made my chocolate pie last time. Ugh oh well I want to make your chocolate gravy and this cake OMYGOODNESS it looks sinful. Goodness i get so excited over food and recipes. Ü