Three Layer Pound Cake

This moist Three Layer Pound Cake is a new favorite of ours- not only is it wonderfully tender and delicious, but the layers of chocolate and vanilla are beautiful too!

How to Make a Three Layer Pound Cake

1. Preheat Oven: Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease & flour a bundt cake pan.
2. Cocoa Mixture: In a small bowl  add the cocoa powder and stir in 5 Tablespoons very Hot water.  The water must be hot to blend the cocoa powder easily and to bloom the cocoa, set aside.

1. Flour & Leavening: In a separate bowl whisk the all purpose flour and baking powder to combine,  set aside.
2. Butter & Sugar: In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix until soft.  Gradually add the sugar and mix  until light a fluffy 3 to 4 minutes. 
3. Eggs: Add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
4. Mixing Dry Ingredients and Wet Ingredients Alternately: Add the vanilla extract to the 1 cup of milk. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. That will be 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 of the milk. Mix just until well blended.
5. Prepare the Darker Chocolate Layer: Scoop 2 ½ cups of batter into a medium sized bowl. Measure out 4 tablespoons of the liquid cocoa mixture and mix into the batter until blended. Pour into the prepared bundt pan and smooth with back of a spoon.

6. Prepare Lighter Chocolate Layer: Using a different bowl, add 2 ½ cups of batter and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of the cocoa mixture.

7. Stir the light chocolate cake batter until blended.

8. Pour the light chocolate cake batter into the bundt pan, gently spread and smoothing it over the first layer of cake batter using the back of a spoon.

9. Vanilla Layer: Add the remaining cake batter to the pan for the vanilla layer.

10. Time to Bake! Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack, still in the pan, for about 10 minutes before turning out.

Easy Chocolate Glaze

We love to dress up our pound cakes with glazes.

We dressed our pound cake in an easy and delicious chocolate glaze, just as with our Marble Pound Cake, Chocolate Cream Cheese Pound Cake, and Chocolate Chip Pound Cake recipes.

This quick ganache can easily be prepared in the microwave with chocolate and heavy cream or whipping cream. We used a Semi-Sweet baking bar but we've used Ghirardelli Chocolate Chips with great results as well.

Simply heat the combined chocolate and cream in small increments (30 seconds or less), stirring in between, until the chocolate has almost melted. Once there are just a few soft pieces of chocolate remaining, gently stir until smooth.

The ganache will thicken as it cools.

If you apply the glaze when it is still very warm, it will be too runny and the drips will run all the way down the side of the cake.

We like to allow the glaze to cool for several minutes until slightly thickened. (You can refrigerate for a few minutes if you'd like to speed up the process).

Decorating the Cake

The ganache can be applied by spooning the glaze over the cake (just as with our easy Boston Cream Pie), but today we used a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away for more control.

Time to slice! We just love the pretty look of these pound cake layers. If you give this three layer pound cake a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below!

Can this Pound Cake be Frozen?

Yes! Just as with Strawberry Pound Cake, Buttermilk Pound Cake, Coconut Pound Cake and more, this cake freezes perfectly.

As a general rule, you can freeze pound cakes (tightly wrapped) for up to three months.

We freeze our cakes all the time. We find that it makes them even more moist- especially if they are wrapped when they are still slightly warm.

Wrap and Freeze: If you are baking in advance, simply bake the pound cake, turn it out of the pan after 10 minutes- (we turn ours our onto a cake cardboard)- allow to cool a bit more and then wrap in plastic wrap while the cake is slightly warm. Follow with a layer of aluminum foil, tightly wrapped.

Thawing Instructions: Allow the cake to thaw on the countertop, still wrapped, for about 45 minutes or until a good amount of condensation has formed on the foil. Then remove the wrapping and allow the cake to warm to room temperature.

*You can also freeze leftover pound cake or slices of pound cake in the same way.

More Pound Cakes to Try

We have so many more delicious cake recipes to share with you!

Some of our most popular pound cake recipes are Whipping Cream Pound Cake, Buttermilk Pound Cake, and Sour Cream Pound Cake.

Here are a few others!

Three Layer Pound Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This tender, flavorful pound cake is not only delicious, but with three layers of vanilla and chocolate, it is beautiful too!

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

• ▢ 3 sticks (339g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 3 cups (600g) sugar
• ▢ 5 large eggs, room temperature (Place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if you are in a hurry.)
• ▢ 3 cups (375g) all purpose, flour (not self-rising)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (2g) baking powder
• ▢ 1 cup (235g) whole milk
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 5 Tablespoons (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder, measure then sift (we used Ghirardelli)
• ▢ 5 Tablespoons (55g) HOT water

For the Chocolate Glaze

• ▢ 4 oz Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate
• ▢ 3 oz Heavy Cream or Whipping Cream

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
• Grease and flour a tube pan.
• In a small bowl  add the cocoa powder and stir in 5 Tablespoons Hot water.  The water must be hot to blend the cocoa powder easily and to bloom the chocolate, set aside.
• In a separate bowl whisk the flour and baking powder to combine,  set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and mix on medium speed until soft.  Gradually add the sugar and mix until light a fluffy 3 to 4 minutes. 
• Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• Add the vanilla extract to the 1 cup of milk. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  That will be 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 of the milk. Mix just until well blended.

Prepare the Darker Chocolate Batter

• Scoop 2 ½ cups of batter into a medium sized bowl. Measure out 4 tablespoons of the liquid cocoa mixture and mix into the batter until blended. Pour into the prepared bundt pan and smooth with back of a spoon.

Prepare the Lighter Chocolate Batter

• Using a different bowl, add 2 ½ cups of batter and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of the cocoa mixture. Stir until blended and pour into the bundt pan, smoothing it over the first layer of batter with the back of a spoon.

Vanilla Batter

• Add the remaining cake batter to the bundt pan & smooth with the back of a spoon for the vanilla layer
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

Chocolate Glaze

• Combine the 4 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate and 3 oz. heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave in small increments (30 seconds or less), stirring occasionally in between, until the chocolate is almost completely melted.
• Then, allow to sit a minute or two and gently stir to melt any remaining pieces of chocolate. Cool the ganache to desired consistency for dripping. We like to apply the drip using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.

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