Chocolate Chip Chocolate Pound Cake

Decadent chocolate chip chocolate pound cake infused with loads of chocolate flavor. Moist crumb, bouncy cake texture, and heaps of melty chocolate chips inside.

If you love traditional pound cake, this recipe is like that but on steroids because we have not just double, but triple chocolate flavor: we have cocoa powder and chocolate chips in the cake batter, and we have rich creamy chocolate glaze on top of the cake (the best part of the cake, of course, especially if you ask children).

This classic Southern cake will not disappoint and will be your next go-to chocolate cake year round.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Lush buttery cake combining the taste of chocolate chip cookies and soft and spongy chocolate cake.
• Super easy pound cake recipe made from scratch.
• This chocolate chip bundt cake works for any occasion but will be especially amazing as a birthday cake for a chocolate lover. Beyond celebrations, it is a perfect morning sweet treat to fix sweet tooth cravings.
• Looks absolutely gorgeous!

Ingredients Notes

Cake Batter

• All-purpose flour mixture with baking powder, baking soda, and a bit of salt
• Unsweetened cocoa powder + more for dusting. Use high-quality cocoa powder. You can also use Dutch-processed cocoa powder but unsweetened natural cocoa powder is a touch more acidic so I use baking soda to balance it out.
• Unsalted butter, softened. You can also still add some neutral vegetable oil to make the cake extra moist. Using both is absolutely normal in baking. I love using just butter too as it gives a very rich flavor.
• Granulated sugar gives nice texture, sweetness, and crisp to the edges. If you want more chewiness and light toffee-like flavor, you can substitute half for the brown sugar.
• Large eggs, room temperature.
• Vanilla extract, use pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste, high-quality and if you can avoid using artificial extracts for baking.
• Sour cream, use full fat sour cream to make a lush and moist cake. It also gives a very subtle tang. You can also use buttermilk (store-bought or homemade made with milk and lemon juice)
• Mini chocolate chips

Chocolate Glaze

• Semisweet chocolate chips
• Unsalted butter
• Heavy cream
• Vanilla extract

Kitchen Equipment

• Nonstick bundt pan greased with baking spray or melted butter. If you want to go one step further, a certain way to prevent the cake from sticking is to use a mixture of melted shortening, oil, and flour.
• Optional, electric or stand mixer
• Saucepan

How To Make Chocolate Chip Chocolate Pound Cake

1: Prepare The Bundt Pan

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Liberally grease the prepared pan, dust it with cocoa powder, shake out the excess, and set it aside.

2: Combine Dry & Wet Ingredients

1. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat on medium speed well until light and fluffy. This is the most crucial step for achieving a light, spongey pound cake. To properly beat the butter, aim for around 4 minutes.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla. It is best to add vanilla extract together with the last egg. Beat well.
4. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients mixture (small portions at a time), alternating with the sour cream until all of the dry ingredients and sour cream have been incorporated.

3: Add Mini Chocolate Chips

Fold in the semi-sweet chocolate chips. To make sure they don’t sink into the cake, toss them in a small amount of flour before adding to the batter.

4: Bake Chocolate Bundt Cake

1. Transfer the cake batter to the prepared bundt pan. Tap the sides to let all the bubbles escape.
2. Bake for 60-70 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The cake is done when the top bounces back easily if you press it.
3. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
4. Invert the cake onto another cooling rack or serving cake plate to remove it from the bundt pan. Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating. Cooling can take up to 2 hours.
5. If you won’t decorate the cake, wait for it to cool down anyway as it will be much easier to cut it. The hot cake will crumble a lot.

5: Make The Vanilla Chocolate Glaze

1. Combine the chocolate chips in a small saucepan with the butter and heavy cream. Heat over low until melted and smooth. Stir continuously.
2. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. 
3. Cool for a couple of minutes to thicken the mixture before pouring over the top of the cooled cake.
4. Set aside for at least 30 minutes for the glaze to set before serving. (you can refrigerate to speed this process along if needed)

Storage

Storing. Store leftover chocolate chip pound cake in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.

Freezing. You can freeze chocolate cake. Let it cool completely, slice and wrap each slice in two layers: plastic wrap plus aluminum foil. Store in a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.

Thaw the wrapped cake in the fridge overnight (note that bundt cakes take more time to thaw than regular layer cakes) and then let it warm up at room temperature.

Making ahead. You can bake the cake and freeze it without the glaze or make the cake 1-2 days ahead and add the glaze the day of.

Substitutions & Variations

• Try different glazes: cream cheese glaze, rich chocolate ganache, white glaze (with powdered sugar), or simply dust with sugar.
• You can use dark or milk chocolate chips, and even white chocolate chips.
• Add instant chocolate pudding mix to the batter. It will make a show stopping cake. You can also use it instead of cocoa powder. Want stronger chocolate flavor? Add espresso powder to the cake batter.
• No time prepping the cake batter? Use your favorite cake mix. If you want to visually see the chocolate chips floating in the cake, use yellow mix.
• Dairy-free chocolate chip cake recipe. Use mashed ripe bananas instead of eggs, and switch dairy to coconut-based products.
• Add-ons. The cake is like a blank slate, perfect for experiments. You can fold different chocolate chips, as I said, but also any chopped nuts, golden raisins, citrus zest, roasted coconut, butterscotch or caramel bites, warm fall spices, sprinkles, and also you can use different extract instead of vanilla (coconut, almond, or even orange).

Expert Tips To Make The Best Chocolate Pound Cake With Chocolate Chips

• To easily remove the cake from the cake pan, run a butter knife along the sides before flipping it.
• Baking in a bundt pan, use a pastry brush to make sure all the curves and crannies are well greased. If you’re not sure about this, use a loaf pan or tube pan. Bundt cakes look absolutely gorgeous but the flavors won’t change if you choose a different pan shape.
• Cake texture should be soft and spongy. To achieve that, mix the ingredients just until they are combined. Overmixing will make a dense cake.
• If the cake looks too brown during baking, cover it with foil. You can’t really tell when it is chocolate batter, but if you use yellow mix you can see the browning.

Popular Questions

What Makes A Pound Cake Different From A Regular Cake?

Pound cakes usually are more buttery and fatty and often use a higher egg to flour ratio than regular cake recipes. Traditional pound cake recipe can skip using leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda altogether as the texture and rising can be achieved by beating butter.

Also, pound cake originally used a pound of each ingredient (flour, eggs, butter, sugar) and while the amounts have changed the ratios between ingredients in pound cakes and regular cakes are often different.

How Do You Keep Chocolate Chips From Sinking In A Cake?

You need to toss the chocolate chips in a little bit of flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the pan. You can also use mini chips, they are smaller and lighter and will not sink as much. The same method works with caramel and butterscotch bits.

What Makes A Pound Cake Turn Out Dry?

If you measure your flour wrong (just scooping), overmix the batter, or bake the pound cake too long, your cake may become dry and crumbly.

If you have a new oven it also takes time to get used to it and you may need to recalibrate it or use an oven thermometer at first.

If you love this chocolate chip pound cake recipe, you’re going to love these other chocolate chip recipes too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

More Great Pound Cake Recipes

Lemon Pound Cake

Strawberry Pound Cake

Mile High Pound Cake

Blueberry Swirl Pound Cake

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