CHOCOLATE AMARETTO POUND CAKE
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A chocoholics dream, Chocolate Amaretto Pound Cake is super moist and ultra chocolatey. This chocolate pound cake has the perfect texture and intense chocolate flavor. Dress it up or down for your celebration.
Isn’t it pretty? I was so excited about making this cake because it was for my oldest son’s 20 birthday. It turned out just as decadent as I wanted it to.
We also love this Chocolate Cherry Cobbler Cake for celebrations.
CHOCOLATE AMARETTO POUND CAKE
Amaretto liquor is the perfect complement to chocolate.
As well, chocolate cakes can sometimes be dry therefore I poured an amaretto
This chocolate pound cake is so dense and rich, it’s almost like a flourless cake. Have you ever had a flourless chocolate cake? They’re dense, rich, and similar to fudge.
Next, I covered the cake with a glossy ganache. This glaze doesn’t harden like a lot of glazes and frostings.
I have really been studying decorating cakes and plating. The saying that we eat with our eyes first is so true! I wanted this birthday cake to be extra special and a real show stopper. As you can see, I decorated it with some of my son’s favorite chocolate candy.
It was a hit. We fought over the chocolate candy.
Chocolate is always a winner.
The ingredient list is somewhat long, but I broke it down into the cake,
INGREDIENTS FOR CHOCOLATE AMARETTO POUND CAKE
The full recipe with amounts and instructions is below in the recipe card. The recipe card has a big blue header. You can create a free recipe box on Call Me PMc to save all your favorite recipes so that you’ll never misplace them.
- Real
butter . Unsalted at room temperature. - Solid vegetable shortening. You can use all
butter or all shortening. - Granulated sugar.
- Brown sugar. Brown sugar adds a little more flavor than white and goes well with chocolate. I haven’t tried all granulated or all brown so I can’t recommend either.
- Large eggs. Five large eggs or equivalent at room temperature.
- All-purpose flour. I have not tested it with cake flour.
- Baking powder.
- Regular cocoa powder.
- Hershey’s dark chocolate powder. You can use all regular cocoa instead of dark cocoa but it won’t be as good.
- Semi-sweet baking chocolate. This is a bar of baking chocolate not chips.
- Buttermilk. I recommend buttermilk, but you can use whipping cream or sour cream.
- Amaretto liquor. You can omit this (you will lose some flavor) and add another tablespoon of almond extract.
- Almond extract. I always recommend pure extract instead of artificial flavorings.
- Vanilla extract. I always recommend pure extract instead of artificial flavorings.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THE BUTTER SAUCE
- Butter. Again real
butter . - Water.
- Granulated Sugar.
- Amaretto liqueur.
Any time you have a dry cake, you can use a
WHAT YOU’LL NEED FOR THE GLAZE AND DECORATIONS
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- Heavy cream.
- Corn syrup. Light Karo or Blackburn’s.
- Amaretto liquor or almond extract.
- Chocolate candy bars, truffles, and chocolate chips to decorate if desired. I used a Heath bar, Hershey Nuggets truffles, Lindt Lindor Sea Salt Milk Chocolate Truffles, Kit Kat candy bars,mini chocolate chips, and Pocky’s.
BEST POUND CAKE TIPS
- Read the recipe through completely at least twice so you know what comes next.
- Sift the flour then measure it.
- A stand mixer will make your life immensely easier. I can’t imagine all this mixing by hand or even with a hand mixer!
- You can use a bundt pan. I used this tube pan. A good rule of thumb when baking pound cakes is to always leave 2 inches from the batter to the top of the pan to allow for rise. As well, always place your baking pan on a cookie sheet to catch any overflows.
- Allow your eggs,
butter , and dairy to come to room temperature before mixing. - I always use real butter in my pounds cakes. I do recommend using real
butter not margarine. - Use real
butter . No substitutions. - I recommend calibrating your oven at least once a year. Read all about how to Calibrate your oven in this post.
- If you don’t want to use amaretto, omit it and use pure almond extract in the cake.
These are delicious and easy recipes too!
- Chocolate Covered Strawberries
- How to Make Chocolate Covered Spoons
- Chocolate Covered Potato Chips
- Martha Washington Candy
- Buckeye Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffle Spoons
- Kitkat Truffles
- Rocky Road Brownies
- Thick Gooey Brownies
- Dark Chocolate Brown Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Mousse Cake
- Best Chocolate Cake
CHOCOLATE AMARETTO POUND CAKE
Equipment
Ingredients
Chocolate Amaretto Pound Cake
- 1 cup butter unsalted, room temperture. Not margarine
- ½ cup Crisco shortening
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 5 large eggs room temp
- 3 cup all-purpose flour sifted then measure
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder sifted
- ⅓ cup Hershey's special dark cocoa powder sifted
- 3 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate melted then cooled
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ¼ cup amaretto liquor
- 1 tablespoon almond extract
- ½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Amaretto Butter Sauce (optional)
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 tablespoons water
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup Amaretto liquor
Chocolate Glaze (optional)
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup light or clear, like Karo or Blackburn's
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
Candy decorations
- 1 regular Health bar
- 1 bag chocolate truffles
- 1 bag Hershey treasures
- ⅓ cup dark mini chocolate-chips
- 1 package Kit Kat candy bars
Instructions
Chocolate Amaretto Pound Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Coat a 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan with solid vegetable shortening and sugar or cake release spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugars until fluffy about 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides. Mix again to combine.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, dark cocoa powder, and baking powder. In a separate smaller bowl or measuring cup combine the buttermilk, vanilla, almond, and amaretto.
- Add the eggs one at a time beating on level 2 or 3 (low) well after each addition. With the mixer on low now, add the melted and cooled chocolate. (You don't have to stir it in completely now. Just let it swirl and mix as you get ready to go to the next step.)
- With the mixer still on low, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk mixture. Once they're mixed together, stop the mixer and scrape the sides, Mix again until the mixture is fully combined. (This batter is very thick.)
- Evenly spread batter in a tube pan or bundt pan. Bake at 325°F for 75 to 85 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center shows no crumbs or dry crumbs.
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack before turning the cake out.
- I baked my cake for 80 minutes. My tube pan is dark. As well, I sit my tube pan on a cookie sheet to catch any drips. Every oven is different. As well, the type and color of the pan and if you sit it on another pan make a difference in baking time. I recommend you start checking your cake at around 70 minutes. Make notes of exactly the pan(s) you use and the exact time for future reference. When you start checking the cake, be very careful opening the oven door and/or moving the cake. Don't move it if you don't have to. Sometimes early on, you can tell it's not ready yet without having to poke it. I just don't want you to overbake it.
Amaretto Butter Sauce (optional)
- For the butter sauce, heat the butter along with the water and sugar in a heavy-bottom pan on the stove. Bring the mixture to a low boil. Boil while whisk for 1 to 2 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and add the amaretto.
- Using a thin skewer, poke holes in the cake and slowly pour the butter sauce over the cake while it's still in the pan. Allow it to sit for a total of 30 minutes to cool before you invert it onto a serving tray.
Chocolate Glaze (optional)
- You'll want to wait to make the glaze until the cake has cooled and you've inverted it onto a serving platter.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl (or measuring cup), microwave the heavy cream and chocolate at 30-second intervals. Stir well every 30 seconds. (It usually only takes 60 seconds for my microwave.) Stir until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup and almond extract. Drizzle over cake and allow it a few minutes to set before serving. This glaze doesn't get hard.
- The cake is beautiful when decorated with just the glaze. If you want to add chocolate like I did wait until the cake and glaze is completely cool.
- You can decorate it with any of your favorite chocolate candy bars and truffles.
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
This cake is delicious and I’ll make it again. The recipe directions confused me though. The ingredients say butter AND shortening. The instructions only mention the shortening for greasing the pan so I didn’t know where to add 1/2 cup. I ended up using another 1/2 cup butter when mixing with sugars. It must have been ok because it was delicious.
This tasted so amazing! Thanks a lot for sharing this super easy to make recipe! Fam really loves it! Will surely have this again! Highly recommended!
Wow, this cake is seriously a show stopper! It is SO good! Easy to make, and impressed everyone!
What a special cake! It was a surprise birthday treat and what a hit! Everyone raved. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
This cake looks absolutely amazing!! A real treat for a birthday party. Saved it and can’t try to try it out soon. Thank you for sharing!