Pound Cakes - SugarHero

Grilled Pound Cake and Peaches

Elizabeth LaBau — Wed, 02 Aug 2017 15:59:00 +0000

Grilled Pound Cake and Peaches are the ultimate summer dessert! Crisp, butter-brushed pound cake and honey-glazed peaches are grilled to perfection, then served with ice cream and a honey-cinnamon caramel sauce. They’re the perfect end to a summer’s barbecue!

Today we are kicking it OLD SCHOOL! I’m sharing a recipe that I first posted to my blog back in 2010. (If this recipe were a person, it would be reading and doing arithmetic right now!) This actually pre-dates SugarHero–it was posted on an old blogspot blog I used to have. I’m really excited to revive it and share it with you today, because it’s one of my very favorite summer desserts, and I think you are going to love it too.

The best thing about this recipe is its simplicity. Now, you know I love a good, complex baking project. My tombstone is going to be in the shape of a giant layer cake and will read “Here lies Elizabeth. She died doing what she loved–whisking pastry cream at 2 am while running 5 mixers and baking 3 different things at once.”

But in the summer, when it’s too hot to think and turning on the oven seems like a cruel joke, and the most I can do for dinner is throw some burgers on the grill, there is nothing better than this quick and easy dessert.

Here’s what we have going on: thick slices of pound cake, brushed with melted butter and tossed on the grill until the outsides are golden and crisp, with lovely char lines and just a hint of smoky flavor.

Next, there’s a quick dessert sauce made from butter, honey and cinnamon. Ripe peaches are given a quick dip in this sauce, then grilled until caramelized, their juices practically bursting out of them when you take them off the grill.

And finally, that same sauce is boiled until it thickens and takes on a caramel color and texture. After that, you put it all together: pound cake! Peaches! A scoop of soft vanilla ice cream! (Oops, did I forget to mention that part?) And a big drizzle of warm honey-cinnamon caramel or cinnamon syrup on top. Heaven. It’s hard to believe that something so fast and easy could taste so good.

One quick note: you’ll want to buy the season’s best peaches–only the juiciest and ripest, please! With such a simple recipe, the quality of the ingredients really shines, and although grilling + dousing in sauce can hide some sins, you’ll get the best results using produce with a great texture and flavor already.

I’m not including a pound cake recipe, because this is supposed to be a quick + easy dessert hack, so I feel it’s my duty to encourage you to use whatever pound cake you can get your hands on, be it bakery-bought, from the frozen aisle, or home made. If you do want to make your own, this Sour Cream Pound Cake from Stella Parks at Serious Eats is the best recipe I’ve tried. Swoon.

I hope you’ll give this recipe a try before the summer’s over!

🍓 More Fabulous Fruit Recipes

No-Churn Peach Ice Cream

This No-Churn Peach Ice Cream is an easy 4-ingredient homemade ice cream recipe that can be made without an ice cream maker! It’s rich, creamy, and packed with peaches and cinnamon flavor.

View Recipe

Peaches and Cream Trifle

Peaches and Cream Trifle is an easy summertime dessert that's bursting with flavor! You'll love this combination of pound cake, fresh peaches, and whipped cream. It’s the best way to enjoy the taste of summer peaches.

View Recipe

Print Recipe

4.67 from 3 votes

Grilled Pound Cake and Peaches

Grilled Pound Cake and Peaches are the ultimate summer dessert! Crisp, butter-brushed pound cake and honey-glazed peaches are grilled to perfection, then served with ice cream and honey-cinnamon caramel sauce. They’re perfect end to a summer’s barbecue!

Prep Time30

Cook Time17

Total Time47

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: grilled desserts, grilled peaches, peaches and ice cream, pound cake, summer desserts

Dessert Type: Misc. Desserts

Servings:

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

6 oz unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), divided use
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg freshly ground recommended
1/8 tsp salt
6 freestone peaches halved and pitted
6 slices pound cake sliced 3/4-inch thick
Ice cream of your choice

US Standard – Metric

Instructions

Melt the 1/2 stick of butter in the microwave and set aside for now.
In small saucepan over medium heat, combine the remaining 1 stick of butter, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Heat until butter is melted, then dip peach halves in the mixture.
Grill the peaches for 5 minutes, then flip them, cover, and grill for 5 more minutes. Carefully remove them from the grill, slice each peach half in quarters and cover to keep warm.
While the peaches are on the grill, continue to heat the honey butter mixture until thick and caramelized, about ten minutes. It will get thicker once it cools down, so err on the side of caution. If you find it’s too thick, add some cream or milk and heat it to loosen it back up.
Once the peaches are off the grill, brush both sides of each pound cake slice with the melted butter. Grill them for about 2 minutes per side, until the slices are crisp and golden.
Top the grilled poundcake with grilled peaches, cold ice cream, warm honey-butter sauce, and swoon.

Video

Measuring Tips

Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.

Nutrition

Dessert Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Pound Cake

Elizabeth LaBau — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 17:45:57 +0000

Get ready for grilled cheese like you’ve never had it before! Dessert Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are made with pound cake, chocolate, fresh raspberries, and gooey, melted brie cheese!

Hello, long-lost friends! Things have been too quiet around here for too long. The bad news is, I’ve been neglecting SugarHero. The good news is, I’ve been busy working on a project that I can fiiiiiinally share with you all! Next week I’m travelling to Denver and filming a second class with Craftsy. (Short explainer: Craftsy is a website that offers in-depth video tutorials about everything from cooking to painting to Photoshop. Last year I collaborated with them on a super fun candy and chocolate-making class, which you can learn all about here.)

For this class, I’m moving away from candy and focusing on cake decorating. I don’t want to spoil all the surprises, but I will say that we are going to cover some REALLY cute techniques, and I’m excited to tell you more about it in the upcoming weeks! If you follow me on Snapchat, you’ve probably seen a few of the designs already. And if you don’t follow me yet, you’d better get up in my Snapchat grill, because I’ll be posting lots of behind-the-scenes stuff on Snapchat and (hopefully) Facebook live while we’re filming. More to come!

Now that I’ve made my excuses and shilled my projects, let’s get down to melty, gooey, face-stuffingly good business.

YOU GUYS. This grilled cheese? Has been giving me life.

As mentioned above, I’ve been frantically scurrying to finish up other work and haven’t had time to make my usual over-the-top desserts. Enter the dessert grilled cheese sandwich! It has just four component: pound cake, chocolate, raspberries, and brie cheese. Sounds simple, right? Well, sometimes the simplest things are best, because take a gander at THIS:

If you are not drooling at that cheese and chocolate situation, you are a monster. Picture it: soft pound cake, edges crispy from being sautéed in butter until golden brown. Melted chocolate, just oozing out the sides of the sandwich. Fresh raspberries releasing their juices, and mixing with the luscious, creamy brie cheese. Can you even handle it?

I wanted to reinforce the cute dessert-for-dinner theme, so I served my sandwiches with chocolate-dipped potato chips and THE CUTEST chocolate almonds that look like pimento olives. (You can buy them here!) The potato chips are so good, they’re worthy of a whole blog post all on their own. Crunchy, salty, with just the right amount of creamy chocolate on top, they’re dangerously addicting. And the almonds not only added a cute look, but they’re tasty too!

This was just what I needed after a long day in the kitchen. Not counting the pound cake, they take under 5 minutes to whip up, and at the end of that time you’ll have a warm treat bursting with chocolate and raspberry flavor. Speaking of pound cake, I had some left over from another project (and I’ve included a recipe down below), but you’re also welcome to use store-bought to save yourself some time.

Now that I’ve made this recipe, I’m excited to try so many more combinations. Different berries, different cheeses, different flavors of chocolate (or Nutella!)….the possibilities are endless. I hope you’ll try it and put your own spin on it, too! Cheers, my dears.

🧀More Cheese Inspired Dessert Recipes

Mascarpone Rhubarb Stuffed French Toast

This Mascarpone Rhubarb Stuffed French Toast is the what breakfast dreams are made of! The contrast between the sweet, rich mascarpone filling, tart rhubarb jam, and crunchy outer crust of the French toast is heavenly.

View Recipe

Raspberry Brie and Chocolate Puff Pastries

These Raspberry Brie and Chocolate Puff Pastry squares are so elegant; you won't believe how easy they are to make. Store-bought puff pastry is filled with fresh sweet-tart raspberries, melty brie and rich dark chocolate – perfection!

View Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Dessert Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Get ready for grilled cheese like you’ve never had it before! Dessert Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are made with pound cake, chocolate, fresh raspberries, and gooey, melted brie cheese!

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Dessert Grilled Cheese Sandwhiches

Dessert Type: Misc. Desserts

Servings: sandwiches

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

For the Pound Cake:

8 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
4 oz cream cheese at room temperature
11.25 oz granulated sugar (1 ½ cups)
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
11.25 oz all-purpose flour (2 ½ cups)
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt

For the Sandwiches:

8 oz brie cheese preferably double crème
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate I love a fruity chocolate, like Lindt orange bars
12 oz fresh raspberries
Unsalted butter

US Standard – Metric

Instructions

To Make the Pound Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of a large stand mixer combine the softened butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix it in. The batter might appear a little broken at this point—that’s okay.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredient and mix just until they’re combined. Finish stirring everything together with a spatula, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Set the pan on a baking sheet, and bake the loaf for about 55-60 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. If the top seems to be getting too dark toward the end, cover it with loosely tented aluminum foil after about 40 minutes of baking.
Let the pound cake cool completely before assembling the sandwiches.

To Make the Sandwiches:

Slice off the ends of the pound cake, and cut the cake into 12 even slices. Cut the rind off the brie (if you prefer your brie without rinds) and cut it into thin slices, about 1/4-inch thick. To assemble a sandwich, place slices of brie on one piece of pound cake, and place slices of a chocolate bar on a second piece of pound cake. They don’t have to cover the entire surface, but try to get most of the cake covered. Place the cake on a plate and microwave for 30 seconds, until the chocolate and cheese start to melt but aren’t entirely melted yet.
Press some raspberries into the surface of the cheese—I used about 12 berries per sandwich. Press the slices together to make a sandwich.
Melt a pat of butter in a skillet over medium heat, and grill the sandwich until it is golden brown on both sides. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 6 sandwiches. Serve warm!

Notes

I always prefer homemade cake to store-bought, but if you don’t have time to make the pound cake, you can substitute store-bought instead. Because the frozen pound cakes tend to be quite short, you might need two loaves to get the same yield.

Measuring Tips

Nutrition

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cake

Elizabeth LaBau — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 22:07:19 +0000

This clever Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cake looks just like a real sandwich! Pound cake, peanut butter frosting, and homemade strawberry jam make this a sweet after-school treat.

It’s back-to-school time! (Yes, I know some parts of the country started school in, like, late July or something absurd like that, but let’s not mince words: that is dumb.) My boys started last week—one as a teacher, one as a student—and I think my feelings about having a quiet, empty house during the day can best be expressed in song: “It’s the most wonderful tiiiiiime of the year!”

So with school starting, everyone is probably looking for fast and healthy lunch recipes, right? Something easy to make, but also nutritious, with a balanced blend of carbs, protein, and healthy fats? Yeah, I don’t have anything like that. Instead I made you a ginormous peanut butter and jelly “sandwich” cake. Sorry not sorry!

This story starts, as so many of my stories do, with a late-night browsing sesh over on Amazon. I think I was looking for popsicle molds, but the clever algorithm robots over at Amazon must have known I was extra-susceptible to whimsy that night, because they showed me the most adorable “cakewich” silicone cake pan, and as soon as my tired, glazed eyes fixed on it, I muttered “You will be mine” and whipped out the credit card. (And THAT also explains why I never have any storage space in my kitchen, and how the UPS man and I have become BFFs.)

This cuteness of this cake really does depend on having the right pan. Of course, you could cut a standard cake into a bread slice shape, but then you wouldn’t have the perfectly darkened edges to serve as the “bread crust.” So the bad news is you’ll need to spring for a specialized loaf pan, but the good news is you’ll be prepared to make a lifetime of sandwich-shaped cakes from here on out. That’s a win, right?

Making the cake itself couldn’t be easier. It’s a basic pound cake recipe, so the cake is nice and firm for slicing in half. I filled it with a thick layer of peanut butter frosting, and topped it with homemade strawberry jam (but store-bought jam would work just as well!)

After I photographed this cake, I put the pieces together on a platter and took them to a party. More than a few people thought that I brought a plate of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches to the party—it looks THAT realistic. (They weren’t mad to find out it’s cake, however!) This is also a great cake for those weirdos out there who are anti-frosting, or at least reduced-frosting. It’s not too sweet and doesn’t feel decadent like a multi-layer cake. Instead, I like to think of it as a little smackerel of something sweet to get you through from lunchtime until dinner time.

Happy back to school for all the students and teachers out there, and a giant HIGH FIVE to all the parents who are now happily shoving their little scholars out of the house every morning.

🥜 More Peanut Recipes You’ll Love

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cake

This clever Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Cake looks just like a real sandwich! Pound cake, peanut butter frosting, and homemade strawberry jam make this a sweet after-school treat.

Cook Time1

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Peanut Butter and Jelly, Peanut butter and Jelly Sandwhich Cake

Dessert Type: Cake

Servings:

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

For the Pound Cake:

9 oz all-purpose flour (2 cups)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 large egg whites at room temperature
6 oz milk (3/4 cup), at room temperature
6 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
10 1/2 oz granulated sugar (1 ½ cups)

For the Peanut Butter Frosting:

4 oz powdered sugar (1 cup)
9 1/2 oz peanut butter (1 cup)
2 1/2 oz unsalted butter (5 tbsp), at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream (2 oz), light whipping cream is also ok to use

For the Strawberry Jam:

24 oz fresh strawberries washed, hulled, and coarsely chopped
3-4 tbsp lemon juice fresh preferred, approximately the juice from 1 large lemon
7 oz granulated sugar (1 cup)

US Standard – Metric

Instructions

To Make the Pound Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray the loaf-shaped cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside for now. Whisk together the vanilla, egg whites, and milk in a separate bowl and set this aside as well.
Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix them together on medium speed until light and creamy, about 3-4 minutes. Turn the mixer speed to low and add a quarter of the dry ingredients, and when those are incorporated, add a third of the wet ingredients. Continue to alternate adding wet and dry ingredients, starting and ending with the drys. Once the last streaks of flour disappear, stop the mixer and scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Bake the cake for about 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. If the top seems to be getting too dark during baking, cover it with loosely tented foil. Cool the cake on a wire rack until it is room temperature before removing it from the pan.

To Make the Peanut Butter Frosting:

Combine the powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix them together on medium-low speed until they’re combined and the dry sugar disappears, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add 2 tablespoons of cream and beat on medium-high speed until the mixture is light, fluffy and smooth. Add up to 2 more tablespoons of cream if necessary, to get a light and smooth texture. The peanut butter frosting can be made in advance and kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several days. Let it come to room temperature before spreading it if you make it in advance.

To Make the Strawberry Jam:

Combine the strawberries, lemon juice, and sugar in the bowl of a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Bring the mixture to a low boil and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, for about 30 minutes. The jam will gradually reduce in volume and thicken up. Periodically test the jam by dabbing a spoonful on a cold plate, then checking the texture. Stop cooking when you have a thick, jammy texture that’s not too runny but not too stiff. The jam can be made in advance and kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for several days.

To Assemble:

Place the cake on a cake cardboard or serving plate. Use a long serrated knife to slice off the brown, rounded top, creating a flat surface on top. Slice the cake into two equal layers. Spread the peanut butter frosting on the bottom layer, going all the way to the edge (depending on your preference, you might not want to use all of the frosting—just add as much as looks good to you!). Spread the strawberry jam on top of the peanut butter frosting, and top with the second cake slice. Cut into small squares to serve.

Notes

If you don’t want to make your own jam, you can easily substitute about 1 1/2 cups store-bought jam.

Measuring Tips

Nutrition

Chocolate Pound Cake

Elizabeth LaBau — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 05:55:30 +0000

This Chocolate Pound Cake has a really deep cocoa flavor! This is my perfect pound cake: soft and plush inside, with a crackly top and a dark chocolate taste.

Whew! I’m back. We took a family vacation for a week and a half and I had the best of intentions. I brought my laptop + notebooks. I had a mile-long to-do list. I thought, “Asher still naps during the day. He goes to bed early every night. I’ll have TONS of time to get great work done on our trip!”

Smash cut to me various scenes of me napping, reading, vegging, and doing everything in my power to avoid any sort of work. Whoops. No regrets because: vacation, but I do wish I was the type to schedule blog posts to go up in advance. (I’m not.) At any rate, absence has made the heart grow fonder and I am so very fond of SugarHero now. Let’s do this thing! On with the show!

Today’s recipe is deceptively simple. Chocolate pound cake isn’t a tall, sexy layer cake or an ooey, gooey Pinterest-bait concoction, but it’s still one of my favorites. Pound cake is like the little black dress of the dessert world: always in style, always appropriate, always delicious. You can serve it in slices like a quick bread and eat it from your hand, or you can fancy it up with berries, cream, or chocolate sauce and make it a proper dessert.

I actually made this recipe four different times before I found a version that I loved. I wanted it moist, moist, moist, so it would keep for days, in case there are crazies out there who manage to not eat all of their cake in one sitting. I also wanted it to have a really deep cocoa flavor—not one of those light brown chocolate-ish cakes that I’ve been disappointed by in the past.

Threading the needle between good texture and great flavor took a bit of tweaking, but I’m so happy with the end result! This is my perfect pound cake: soft and plush inside, with a crackly top and a dark chocolate taste.

I won’t judge you if you want to eat it plain—one of the great things about pound cake is that it’s a perfect snackin’ cake! Cut off a sliver here or there, cart it around in your palm, take a nibble in between typing emails—it’s tidy, perfectly satisfying on its own, and doesn’t feel like a gut-bomb.

HOWEVER. Want to take your pound cake experience up a level? Get yourself some strawberries, chop them coarsely, then mix them with a bit of sugar. Mash everything together and let them sit until they’re a gloriously syrupy mess. Then dollop a big pile of softly whipped cream onto a slice of pound cake, pour on those strawberries, and finish with some chocolate sauce or ganache. Yessssssss.

I know strawberry shortcake is the more traditional summer dessert, but there’s no reason we can’t switch out the boring old shortcakes for some chocolate pound cake instead. Let’s make the most of summer strawberries by having this all day, erryday, okay? Okay.

🍞More Pound Cake Recipes

Nutella Pound Cake Petit Fours

These Nutella Pound Cake Petit Fours have three thin layers of moist cream cheese pound cake sandwiching two thick layers of Nutella. Utterly delicious!

View Recipe

Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake

This Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake starts with homemade cream cheese pound cake, swirled with ribbons of semi-sweet chocolate that is soaked in orange scented syrup! You'll be popping these into your mouth left and right!

View Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Chocolate Pound Cake

This Chocolate Pound Cake has a really deep cocoa flavor—not one of those light brown chocolate-ish cakes that I’ve been disappointed by in the past. This is my perfect pound cake: soft and plush inside, with a crackly top and a dark chocolate taste.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Total Time1 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chocolate, chocolate pound cake, homemade, pound cake

Dessert Type: Cake

Servings:

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

5 oz cake flour (1 ¼ cups)
2 oz unsweetened cocoa powder (2/3 cup)
1/3 tsp salt
6 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
8.75 oz granulated sugar (1 ¼ cups)
3 large eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant espresso powder optional
4 oz heavy cream (1/2 cup)
4 oz bittersweet chocolate finely grated

US Standard – Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray an 8.5×4.5″ loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. (A larger loaf pan can be used, resulting in a shorter pound cake.) Cut a strip of parchment the width of the pan’s bottom, and lay it along the bottom of the pan, extending up over the sides. Spray the parchment.
Sift together the cake flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Sift them a total of three times, to give the cake an extra fine, light texture.
Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream them together on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.
Stir together the cream and espresso powder, if you’re using it. With the mixer running on low, add half of the flour to the mixing bowl, and when it’s nearly incorporated, add the cream. Once the cream is mixed in, add the remaining flour, and mix until just a few flour streaks remain. Stop the mixer and finish mixing by hand, stirring with a spatula and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl. Add the grated chocolate and gently stir it in.
Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and spread it into an even layer. Bake the cake at 350 F for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. If the top seems to be getting too dark while baking, cover it with loosely tented foil.
Let the cake cool for 15 minutes, then run a knife gently around the edges of the pan. Use the parchment to help you pop the cake out of the pan, and cool it completely on a wire rack. Serve slices of pound cake with whipped cream, strawberries, and/or chocolate sauce.

Measuring Tips

Nutrition

Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake

Elizabeth LaBau — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:07:28 +0000

This Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake starts with homemade cream cheese pound cake, swirled with ribbons of semi-sweet chocolate that is soaked in orange scented syrup! You’ll be popping these into your mouth left and right!

Remember how I went on and on (and on) about tempering chocolate a few days ago? I hope that put you in a chocolate-dipped mood, because have I got something good for you.

Please meet my new favorite treat, Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake. Is it a cake? Is it a candy? It’s kind of both, and kind of neither, and entirely, 100% awesome.

This recipe starts with homemade cream cheese pound cake, swirled with ribbons of semi-sweet chocolate before baking. After the cake is baked, you pour on an insane amount of orange-scented syrup. You’ll think it’s too much syrup, and you’ll give my recipe the side-eye while you’re pouring. Have faith. After a good long soak, the cake will make like a sponge and absorb all of the syrup, leaving it with an extra-moist texture and a fabulous punch of orange flavor in every bite.

[Not a fan of chocolate and orange together? No worries! Substitute your favorite liqueur for the orange juice concentrate. I think amaretto, framboise, or frangelico would all be amazing. Or you could keep things simple and just use all water, to give the cake a moist texture without any additional flavoring. Marbled pound cake doesn’t need much accessorizing, anyhow.]

The crowing touch is the final dip in tempered semi-sweet chocolate. The combination of tender, citrus-scented cake in a crisp, dark chocolate shell is amazing. Without the chocolate shell you’ve made a decent sheet cake, but once the pieces are dipped they become a fabulous, elegant two-bite dessert.

They reminded me a bit of cake pops, but—dare I say it?—I liked them much better. They retain the fine texture of cake, without any of the gumminess some cake pops have. Plus, using real chocolate instead of candy coating is always a win in my book.

It is not an exaggeration to say that I could not stop eating these. I found, through dedicated experimentation, that they make a great breakfast, a delicious lunch, and a lovely post-workout snack. None of these options are nutritionally recommended, but I dare you to have a big container of these on your kitchen counter and resist sneaking bites whenever possible. I finally had to give them away because they were way too addicting—and now I’m craving them all over again.

I have to give snaps to Swamp Hollow Designs, where I first saw this idea. I used a very different recipe and methodology, but I was definitely inspired by her idea of dipping soaked pound cake in chocolate!

💙More Chocolate-Dipped Desserts You’ll Love

Petit Fours

These Petit Fours have a little bit of extra fancy flare with its disco dust and edible gold leaf. They glimmered and sparkled and added just the right amount of glitz to our dessert table.

View Recipe

Raspberry Nanaimo Pops

Raspberry Nanaimo Pops are bite-sized versions of nanaimo bars. They have crust made from chocolate, nuts, graham crackers, and coconut, and a sweet-tart raspberry cream filling. Dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with raspberry powder, they’re a fun twist on the original!

View Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Chocolate -Dipped Pound Cake

Dessert Type: Cake, Candy, Misc. Desserts

Servings: pieces

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

For the Pound Cake:

8 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate melted

For the Orange Syrup:

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate defrosted
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp light corn syrup

To Dip:

3 lbs semi-sweet chocolate
Chocolate thermometer for tempering
Sprinkles chopped nuts, or other toppings

US Standard – Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a half sheet pan (18×13 inches), or similarly sized rimmed baking sheet, with aluminum foil so that the foil hangs over the sides. Spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of a large stand mixer combine the softened butter, cream cheese, and sugar. Mix on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix it in. The batter might appear a little broken at this point—that’s okay.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredient and mix just until they’re combined. Finish stirring everything together with a spatula, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top and use a butter knife to swirl it in—try to swirl it down to the bottom of the pan, not just along the top layer.
Bake the cake for about 20 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Let cool on a wire rack while you prepare the soaking syrup.

To make the syrup:

Combine the sugar, orange juice concentrate, water, and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then heat the syrup, stirring occasionally, until it just comes to a boil. Remove the syrup from the heat and pour the hot sugar syrup all over the cake. It will pool up on top and around the sides and will seem like too much syrup. It’s okay! Let it sit and soak at room temperature for 24 hours, and the cake will absorb all the syrup and will become wonderfully moist and flavorful.

To dip the bars:

Once the cake has absorbed the syrup you can dip them in chocolate! Melt 4 ounces of the chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave. Spread it in a very thin layer over the top of the cake, and refrigerate the cake until the chocolate is set. Once set, place a large cutting board on top of the pan of cake, then flip it upside down so the cake is now resting on the cutting board. Remove the pan and pull the foil away from the cake. You should now have your cake on the cutting board, chocolate side down. This chocolate layer will act as a “foot” for the pieces of cake and will make it easier and less messy to dip them.
Cut the cake into small bars about 1 inch wide and 2 inches across. I couldn’t stop eating the cake while I was cutting it, and I got about 72 bars out of this recipe—you might get more if you have more willpower!
Temper the remaining chocolate according to these directions. Alternately, you can use chocolate candy coating, or you can simply melt the chocolate—but if you melt it, be aware that you should always keep the pieces in the refrigerator so the chocolate doesn’t get too soft. Place a piece of cake, chocolate side down, on dipping tools or a fork, and dip it completely into the melted chocolate. Remove it from the chocolate and let the excess drip back into the bowl, then set it on a piece of parchment to set completely. If desired, sprinkle the top with chopped nuts or sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet.
Chocolate-Dipped Pound Cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week.

Notes

This recipe has a 24 hour wait if you want to include the soaking syrup step, so be sure to plan your time accordingly! If you’re in a rush you can omit the soaking and you’ll still have some pretty tasty chocolate-dipped pound cake. You can also use store-bought pound cake instead of homemade. If you do this, I recommend slicing it into 1-inch thick slices and layering it in a rimmed baking sheet before pouring the soaking syrup on as directed. Finally, if you don’t want to temper the chocolate, you can use chocolate-flavored candy coating. You can also use plain melted chocolate if you plan on keeping these treats in the refrigerator until serving. If you need a tempering refresher, I have an illustrated chocolate tempering tutorial to help you out!

Measuring Tips

Nutrition

Dulce de Leche Swirl Pound Cake

Elizabeth LaBau — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:50:51 +0000

This Dulce de Leche Swirl Pound Cake has a moist, dense texture that is filled with caramel swirls of dulce de leche throughout. It’s fragrant with vanilla and the milky sweetness of condensed milk!

I live with a dulce de leche lover. I’d even go so far as to say he’s a dulce de leche lovah. Jason-and-dulce-de-leche-sitting-in-a-tree territory. I don’t even know why I bother making fancy desserts, when I could just boil a can of condensed milk, give him a can opener and a spoon, and completely make his week.

So when I saw a recipe for pound cake made with condensed milk on 17 and Baking, I immediately starting thinking of ways I could dulce de leche-ify it. I thought about simply replacing the condensed milk with thinned dulce de leche (which still sounds awesome), but then I decided that adding pockets of dulce de leche swirled throughout the cake sounded awesomer. And it was.

This cake has a moist, dense texture. It’s fragrant with vanilla and the milky sweetness of condensed milk, and best of all, is filled with caramel swirls of dulce de leche throughout. I think I just made Jason’s year.

I made this cake a few times before I got a version I loved. It was something of a Goldilocks quest: the first batch was underbaked and soggy in the middle. The next was dry and overdone on the edges. But finally, it was just right. What I’ve discovered is that the texture of the dulce de leche is important: too thick and it all sinks like a stone to the bottom, but too thin and it blends into the cake without making distinct swirls.

[Don’t be fooled by the picture below. The dulce de leche dripping alluringly from the pound cake? Is way too thin to work. It’s nice as a topping, but the stuff baked into the cake should have more body.]

To get my perfect texture, I make dulce de leche in the slow cooker, which takes about 8 hours, but has the benefit of being completely brainless. I literally stick it in there and forget about it for the day, and when 8 hours are up I have perfect dulce de leche, every time.

If you follow the recipe below you will end up with twice as much dulce de leche as the recipe calls for, and for that I apologize. Well, actually, I “apologize,” since extra dulce de leche is hardly a bad thing. It’s simply easiest to make it if you use a whole can, but you’ll only need half a can’s worth for the swirls. I recommend thinning out the extra and using it as a cake topping, or simply doubling the recipe and freezing one of the loaves.

You can also use store-bought dulce de leche, but make sure you use a variety that is thick, almost like peanut butter, not thin like caramel sauce.

🤎More Desserts for Cinco de Mayo

Dulce de Leche Swirled Tarts

These beautiful Dulce de Leche Swirled Tarts start with a dark chocolate crust, packed with thick swirls of chocolate, dulce de leche, and white chocolate ganache!

View Recipe

Cinnamon Puff Pastry Twists

These Cinnamon Puff Pastry Twists are an admittance that sometimes thing should just be kept simple. A little rolling, a little twisting, a little baking and you’re done!

View Recipe

Print Recipe

No ratings yet

Dulce de Leche Swirl Pound Cake

This Dulce de Leche Pound Cake has a moist, dense texture that is filled with caramel swirls of dulce de leche throughout. It’s fragrant with vanilla and the milky sweetness of condensed milk!

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Total Time1 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Chocolate -Dipped Pound Cake, dulce de leche

Dessert Type: Cake, Quick Breads

Servings:

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

To Make Dulce de Leche

14 oz sweetened condensed milk (1 can), prepare dulce de leche one day in advance

To Make the Pound Cake

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz unsalted butter at room temperature
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
3 large eggs at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
8 oz sweetened condensed milk (3/4 cup)
2/3 cup dulce de leche

Instructions

To Make Dulce de Leche

My favorite way of making dulce de leche is in a slow cooker. Place the can of condensed milk in the slow cooker and cover it with water until the can is completely submerged. Cover the slow cooker and cook it on low for 8 hours. After 8 hours, carefully remove the can from the water and let it cool completely to room temperature before opening it. The dulce de leche should be thick, almost like peanut butter. If it is too thick and closer in texture to caramel candy, whisk a little milk or cream in to loosen it up.
If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can place the can in a saucepan and cover it completely with water. Cook it at a low simmer over medium heat for 4 hours, refilling the saucepan as necessary so the can is always covered with water. Let it cool at room temperature before using.

To Make the Pound Cake

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray an 8.5×4.5 inch bread pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside for now.
Place the butter and brown sugar in the large bowl of a stand mixer, and mix them together at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until they’re fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and the condensed milk, and mix it in.
With the mixer running on low speed, slowly stream in the dry ingredients, and mix until they’re almost incorporated. Finish mixing the batter by hand with a spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl and making sure there are no streaks of flour or butter.
Spoon about a third of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer. Drop half of the dulce de leche on top of the batter in large spoonfuls. Pour half of the remaining batter on top of the dulce de leche, and spoon the rest of the dulce de leche on top of the batter. Finally, cover the dulce de leche with the last of the batter and smooth it out. Take a table knife and run it through the batter briefly to swirl the dulce de leche. Don’t overwork it, or the dulce de leche will sink to the bottom and you’ll lose the swirled effect.
Bake the pound cake at 325 F for 60-65 minutes. If the top starts to darken before the cake is cooked, cover it loosely with foil to prevent it from getting too brown. Test the center of the cake with a skewer to make sure that it’s fully cooked in the middle.

Notes

Adapted from a cake recipe in The Sweet Spot by Pichet Ong.

Measuring Tips

Nutrition

Passion Fruit-Raspberry Pound Cake

Elizabeth LaBau — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:46:07 +0000

This Passion Fruit-Raspberry Pound Cake is the perfect “tea cake” or between-meals snacking bread, because it’s not too sweet or heavy. If you don’t have passion fruit you can use any fruit juice!

This Passion Fruit-Raspberry swirl bread was the happiest of accidents.

I’ve been doing some recipe testing for the book (yes, still, sigh, whimper) and I ended up with a cup of leftover passion fruit pulp, and about a quarter-cup of raspberry puree. After discovering the hard way that passion fruit pulp really, really does not taste good in a smoothie—unless you’re making a SUGAR SMOOTHIE, because man that stuff is sour—I started looking for a way to use it up that did not involve having to make more candy.

Turns out that passion fruit makes an absolutely delicious pound cake. And if there’s a raspberry swirl involved? So much the better.

I adapted a recipe for buttermilk pound cake and added passion fruit pulp and orange zest to the batter. (The orange doesn’t really come out, it just boosts the fruity flavor a little.) Then I added a few spoonfuls of raspberry puree to about a third of the batter, and swirled them all together. After baking, the bread was finished with a passion fruit glaze.

This bread is going to have me wishing for leftovers more often! It’s soft and moist, with a great sweet-tart flavor. It’s a perfect “tea cake” or between-meals snacking bread, because it’s not too sweet or heavy. If you don’t have passion fruit you can use any fruit juice—lemon, orange, grapefruit, mango, or guava all seem like they would be lovely.

I really liked the raspberry flavor, but next time I might omit the puree and stir in fresh raspberries instead, so the raspberry taste is more pronounced. You could also add other berries like blueberries, blackberries, or sliced strawberries.

🌸More Passion Fruit Recipes

Dulce de Leche Swirl Pound Cake

This Dulce de Leche Pound Cake has a moist, dense texture that is filled with caramel swirls of dulce de leche throughout. It’s fragrant with vanilla and the milky sweetness of condensed milk!

View Recipe

Chocolate Pound Cake

View Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Passion Fruit-Raspberry Pound Cake

Prep Time35

Cook Time1

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: homemade, passion fruit, passion fruit pound cake, pound cake, raspberry pound cake

Dessert Type: Quick Breads

Servings:

Author: Elizabeth LaBau

Ingredients

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz unsalted butter room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup passion fruit pulp strained
2 tbsp fresh orange zest (from 1 orange)
1/2 cup buttermilk room temperature
2 tbsp raspberry puree can substitute 1/2 cup fresh raspberries

For the Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp passion fruit pulp

US Standard – Metric

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside for now.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, then when they are fully incorporated, ad the vanilla extract, passion fruit pulp, and orange zest.
Turn the mixer to low and add a third of the flour mixture. When that is incorporated add half of the buttermilk, then half of the remaining flour, then the last of the buttermilk. Finally, add the rest of the flour and stir it in just until it is combined.
Remove about 1/3 of the batter and stir in the raspberry puree. (Alternately, you can stir fresh raspberries into the full portion of batter and then disregard the following instructions for swirling the batter.)
Drop the passion fruit and raspberry batter in alternating spoonfuls into the prepared loaf pan. When all the batter is in the pan, use a table knife to swirl it a few times—don’t over-swirl, or you’ll have a muddy batter!
Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes, until brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then turn it out and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
Once cool, prepare the glaze. Whisk together the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of passion fruit pulp. If you prefer a thinner glaze, add up to 1 additional tablespoon of pulp. Pour the glaze over the cake and allow it to set at room temperature.
To store Passion Fruit Raspberry Pound Cake, wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for several months.

Measuring Tips

Nutrition