Super Moist Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake (the Best Ever!)

Have you ever tried cakes with sour cream? Well, you must try this chocolate sour cream pound cake!

It is soft and fluffy and has an amazingly moist texture with a deliciously rich and decadent chocolate flavor, perfect for chocolate lovers.

Pound cakes are very old-fashioned and simple cakes typically made using equal portions of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. They are soft and fluffy and easy to customize to many different flavors like matcha, lime, lemon, banana, etc with the simple addition of extra ingredients such as fruits, powders, and extracts for the extra flavors.

When making a chocolate pound cake, you replace a small portion of the flour with cocoa powder. That gives you a chocolate pound cake.

The chocolate sour cream pound cake recipe I have on this page is a slight extension of a typical old-fashioned chocolate pound cake in that I have added sour cream to it. The sour cream does not replace any ingredients in the chocolate pound cake. It is merely an additional ingredient.

What is Sour Cream?

Sour cream is essentially fermented heavy cream. It has a creamy texture and looks almost similar to yogurt. The difference between these 2 is that sour cream is made using the cream while yogurt is made using milk.

Sour cream is widely used in cooking and baking. It is a common ingredient in cheesecakes and lends a creamy texture to the cheesecakes. In normal cakes, sour cream helps the cakes bake with a lovely moist texture, and adds a wonderfully rich flavor, thanks to its creamy texture and slightly tangy flavor.

Sour cream can be purchased from the milk and dairy section in most stores. It does not typically have a very long shelf life and should be kept refrigerated at all times.

How to Make the Cake

Ingredients

Cake

• Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt
• Brown sugar
• Butter
• Eggs
• Cocoa powder
• Sour Cream
• Milk
• Vanilla Extract

Chocolate ganache glaze

• Dark chocolate
• Heavy whipping cream

Mixing the chocolate pound cake batter

1. Start by combining the milk and sour cream in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth and set aside.
2. Measure the brown sugar into a large bowl. Add in the butter. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed with a paddle attachment on an electric mixer until they turn light and fluffy. This should take approximately 2 minutes.
3. Scrape bowl (sides and bottom) with a rubber spatula at one minute interval.
4. Next, add in the eggs. Do this one at a time. Each time, beat until the traces of the egg are no longer visible.
5. In a separate bowl, sift together the self-raising flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa powder.
6. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients (the flour mixture) into the creamed wet ingredients mixture in 3 batches.

1. Alternate each batch of the dry ingredients with the milk-sour cream mixture in 2 batches.
2. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add vanilla extract and mix well.
3. Pour batter into a well-greased and floured 8 inches by 4 inches loaf tin.
4. Level the top and bake at 165 degrees Celsius for 50 to 55 minutes. Test the cake at 50 minutes by inserting a skewer or a cake tester in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready. Remove it from the oven.
5. Let the cake rest in the tin for about 5 minutes. Use a jam knife to loosen the sides of the cake against the cake tin.
6. Transfer the cake onto a wire rack (with the top facing up) and cool cake completely before adding the chocolate glaze.

Making the chocolate ganache glaze

1. Measure the cream into a heat proof medium bowl. Double boil (by placing the bowl over a small saucepan of boiling water but making sure the bowl does not touch the hot water) it until it starts to bubble on the sides. Remove from heat.
2. Chop the chocolate (no need to chop if using chocolate chips or chocolate buttons).
3. Pour the hot cream onto the chocolate. Let it sit for 2 minutes.
4. Stir slowly to combine the chocolate and the cream to a smooth glaze. Let it cool down slightly until it reaches a slightly thickened consistency before using on the cooled cake.

Decorating the cake with chocolate ganache glaze

1. Spoon the chocolate glaze generously on the top of the cake.
2. Slowly push it to the sides of the cake loaf with a spoon to create the dripping effect.

Notes

Why do you need to sift the cocoa powder?

• Cocoa powder tends to be lumpy and it is best sifted before being added into the cake batter. If you see any lumps of cocoa powder in your sieve, you need not discard them. Simply use a spoon to break them and sieve through.

Can you substitute cocoa powder with melted chocolate?

• Melted chocolate can be used in cakes. This recipe, however, uses cocoa powder. Hence it cannot be substituted with melted chocolate without making changes to the quantity of remaining ingredients like the flour and the liquid ingredients.
• It is best that the cake is made with cocoa powder.

Can you replace brown sugar with white sugar?

• Yes, technically you can replace brown sugar with white sugar. Do note that the brown sugar in this chocolate sour cream pound cake recipe contributes to the deep molasses-like flavor of the chocolate cake. When combined with sour cream, it adds to the rich taste of the cake. Substituting this with white sugar means your cake will miss out on this flavor.
• When substituting, use granulated sugar (finer sugar granules) rather than the regular white sugar.

How long can this moist pound cake last?

• This chocolate sour cream pound cake can last at room temperature for a good 4 to 5 days provided you handle it without moisture.
• If you wish to keep it longer, it is best to refrigerate it. Consume with one week. The cake is best wrapped in a plastic wrap (cling wrap) without the chocolate topping to ensure it remains moist.

Can you bake the cake in a round cake tin?

• Yes, it can. Use a 7 inches round tin. Reduce the baking time to 45 minutes. Check the cake for doneness by inserting a skewer in the center of the cake at 40 minutes interval. If the skewer comes out without any wet batter sticking to it, it is ready. Otherwise, continue to bake further. The cake will bake to an approximate height of 2 inches in a 7 inches round tin.
• You can also use this chocolate sour cream pound cake to make a birthday cake or celebration cake. Double the recipe and bake it in two 7-inches round cake tins. Sandwich the layers with the frosting of your choice and decorate as you wish.

Like this super moist cake recipe? Here are my other posts you might want to check out

• Old School Butter Pound Cake with Buttercream Icing
• Old Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake
• Banana Pound Cake
• Lime Pound Cake with Easy Lime Glaze
• Matcha Pound Cake
• Moist Sour Cream Lemon Cake (without Buttermilk)
• Chocolate Icing Recipe

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Recipe (Printable)

Here is the full printable version of my super moist chocolate sour cream pound cake recipe.

And that's my super moist and flavorful chocolate sour cream pound cake recipe for you.

Enjoy!