Chocolate Orange Pound Cake

Pound cake. Ohhhh pound cake.
Pound cake is a source of happiness, in warm moist sweet loaf form.
And sometimes its necessary to eat half the loaf.
It's okay. Pound cake feeds the soul.

This pound cake pairs two flavors of orange and chocolate. I absolutely love orange and chocolate together, especially in a rich cake. It's tangy, but sweet...whatwhat!

Soo although this cake was extremely delicious and wonderful, it was a mini disaster in my kitchen. This recipe is wayyyy too big for a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan like the original recipe stated. I repeat: Way. Too. Big.
The batter was constantly overflowing over the sides of the pan, forcing me to scrape up the drippings and eat all of them. It was rough, but I managed to pull through.

I recommend making this in a bundt pan....
Whoa, my spell check says bundt is not a word. This is a disgrace. This is mutiny! This must be changed!
Totally off topic.

Anyways it took about 90 minutes to cook this baby, because the middle was completely raw while the edges were brown. It was a fiasco! This bread was a trouble maker indeed. A scrumptious trouble maker.

Chocolate Orange Pound Cake

from: Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons orange zest

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup dark chocolate pieces

 Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.  Grease a 9×5-inch baking pan and dust with flour. STOP. NO. BUNDT PAN. NOW. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

On a clean cutting board or counter, place the granulated sugar.  Add the orange zest.  With a bench scraper or the back of the spoon, work the zest into the granulated sugar, creating a fragrant and orange flavored sugar.  Set aside.

 

Sugar studded with orange zest. Orange sugar. Sugar and orange. So tangy, so sweet, SO right.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together softened butter and cream cheese.  Stop the mixer occasionally to scrape down the bowl and make sure that the butter and cream cheese are evenly mixed.  Add the citrus zest to the butter and cream cheese mixture, and beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.

Stop the mixer.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl.  On medium speed, beat in one egg at a time, beating for one minute after each addition.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Beat in vanilla extract.

Add dry ingredients all at once.  Beat on low speed until dry ingredients are completely incorporated.

Fold in the chocolate pieces.
Eat raw batter.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. This is when I should have noticed a BIG problem. But I didn't. I just threw it into the oven, blissfully unaware of the chaos that was about to ensue.

  Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, or with just a few crumbs. Mine took about an hour and a half, plus a few extra 5 minutes to make sure the middle was done. I checked it about every 10 minutes because it kept overflowing.

 You might consider loosely placing a foil tent over the cake after about 45 minutes of baking.  This will keep it from browning too much, and help the center bake up.

 Although this cake was a hassle, it was absolutely worth it. It was orangy and sweet and decadent. I highly recommend this cake. On any and every day.