This delightful Marbled Pound Cake with chocolate icing features moist and tender chocolate and vanilla cake swirled together into a beautiful and yummy loaf.
While I'm not super crazy about regular cake with frosting, I do get quite giddy over a good pound cake or coffee cake, as I wrote about in the post for my Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake. When made with the correct ingredients and method, coffee and pound cakes alike can be incredible in texture and flavor! They are so rich and tasty. That's very exciting to me.
Pound cakes are sometimes (I think it should always be) topped with an icing/glaze that is poured on top of the loaf-shaped cake, like the yummy almond icing that tops my Poppy Seed Pound Cake. This marbled chocolate pound cake is topped with an irresistible chocolate icing that includes butter and melted chocolate for a rich and tasty topping that's just the icing on the cake! Imagine the best chocolate donut glaze; that's what this icing is like!
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⭐️ Why You Need to Make This Recipe
- Texture - The cake itself is wonderfully tender, dense, and moist thanks to lots of butter and also sour cream added to the batter.
- Flavor - You can't go wrong with the combination of chocolate and vanilla and this marbled chocolate vanilla pound cake recipe is absolutely a winner!
- Method - This recipe does have a few uncommon steps, but have no fear, it's not too complicated for bakers of any skill level to master.
🧈 Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed to make this chocolate marbled pound cake.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter - This recipe calls for salted butter but you could use unsalted butter instead with ¼ teaspoon of salt added to the batter and a pinch of salt added to the icing.
- Eggs - It is very important that the eggs and butter be at room temperature to allow them to incorporate into the batter well for a fluffy and smooth batter.
- Chocolate - Nothing fancy is necessary, I simply use semisweet chocolate chips for the chocolate in the batter and icing. To avoid seizing, it is important to slowly melt the chocolate in 15-second increments if using the microwave! Or melt low and slow in a pot on the stove.
- Cocoa - This recipe requires unsweetened cocoa powder. I use this Dutch-processed cocoa that I buy at Costco.
See the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with measurements.
📃 Instructions
Step 1: Cream together the softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add the room-temperature eggs and vanilla extract and continue mixing for another minute until fluffy and smooth.
Step 2: Add the sour cream and mix at low speed just until incorporated.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
Step 4: Add the combined dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture. Mix at low speed just until no streaks of flour remain.
Step 5: Melt ¼ cup of chocolate chips in a heat-safe bowl in 15-second increments, stirring between each increment until smooth and completely melted. Fold half of the batter into the melted chocolate along with the cocoa powder just until smooth.
Step 6: Alternate scoops of both the chocolate and vanilla into a greased loaf pan using a cookie scoop or teaspoon until all the batter is used up.
Step 7: Use a butter knife to gently swirl the batter around throughout the loaf to create a marbled loaf being careful not to overmix so that each batter still has definition. Bake in a preheated oven for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the pan after 10 minutes and let cool while making the icing.
Step 8: Melt the butter and ¼ cup of chocolate chips for the icing in 15-second increments, stirring between each increment until fully melted. Then, whisk in the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and enough milk to make a spreadable yet not runny icing. Spread over the cooled loaf.
❓ Recipe FAQs
This pound cake will be good for about up to 4 days, but I bet it will all be eaten by then!
Pound cake is generally more rich and dense than regular cakes with the large portion of butter and eggs included in the batter.
Traditional pound cake recipes would call for a pound of each of the main ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs, and flour.
Yes! Simply replace the salted butter called for with unsalted butter and add ¼ teaspoon of salt to the batter and a pinch of salt to the icing to ensure proper flavor development.
🍫 More Delightful Chocolate Recipes
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
If you tried this Marbled Pound Cake with Chocolate Icing or any other recipe on my website, please leave a ⭐️ star rating and write a little note telling me how it went in the comments below. Thank you!!
📖 Recipe
Marbled Pound Cake with Chocolate Icing
Equipment
- 9x5-inch loaf pan
- parchment paper
- measuring cups & spoons
- mixing bowls
- electric handheld mixer
Ingredients
For the Batter:
- ½ cup salted butter softened to room temperature *
- ¾ cup granulated white sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature *
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips *
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
For the Icing:
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips *
- ½ cup powdered sugar (confectioners sugar)
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with butter or non-stick spray.
- In a bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the softened butter and white sugar for 1 minute. Add the room-temperature eggs and vanilla and continue creaming at high speed until fluffy. Add the sour cream and mix just until incorporated.½ cup salted butter, ¾ cup granulated white sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ cup sour cream
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder before adding to the combined wet ingredients and mixing at low speed just until no streaks of flour remain.1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Melt ¼ cup of chocolate chips in a heat-safe bowl in 15-second increments, stirring between each increment until smooth and completely melted. Fold half of the batter into the melted chocolate along with the cocoa powder just until smooth.¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- Alternate scoops of both the chocolate and vanilla into the greased loaf pan using a cookie scoop or teaspoon until all the batter is used up. Use a butter knife to gently swirl the batter around throughout the loaf to create a marbled loaf being careful not to overmix so that each batter still has definition.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the pan after 10 minutes and let cool while making the icing.
- Melt the butter and ¼ cup of chocolate chips for the icing in 15-second increments, stirring between each increment until fully melted. Then, whisk in the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, and enough milk to make a spreadable yet not runny icing. Spread over the cooled loaf. Let the icing set for about 15 minutes before slicing to serve for clean slices or dig right in! Enjoy!2 tablespoons salted butter, ¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon milk, ½ cup powdered sugar
Notes
- It is very important that the eggs and butter be at room temperature to allow them to incorporate into the batter well for a fluffy and smooth batter.
- Nothing fancy is necessary, I simply use semisweet chocolate chips for the chocolate in the batter and icing. To avoid seizing, it is important to slowly melt the chocolate in 15-second increments if using the microwave! Or melt low and slow in a pot on the stove.
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