Mocha Caramel Pound Cake for The Beloved

NOTE: This post contains a story about how I met my husband. I will never remove this section of this post. If you’d prefer not to read it, please scroll on past it or use the “Jump to Recipe” button at the very top of the post. Or just click here. Thanks!

When Jenni Met The Beloved

When I saw the boy with the Odd Hair sitting by himself in the dining hall the first day of freshman year, I had no idea that one day he would become The Beloved. Maybe he already was The Beloved and I couldn’t recognize it. But, as soon as my roommate and I sat down with him to eat and we began to talk, I immediately developed strong feelings for him.

Loathing.

Truly, I was not a fan at all.

We went to a very small school, so we had many classes together. And whenever he opened his mouth to speak in class: loathing. He thought he knew everything. And he sort of did. Very book smart and arrogant about it. I wanted to punch him in the neck.

Slowly, over a couple of years, we became friends. I’m not even really sure how it happened. And then one day towards the end of junior year, I looked at him and thought to myself, “Damn, he’s pretty.” Shallow? Absolutely. But there you have it.

Once I noticed him in that way I couldn’t un-notice him. I would moon around him—very Coolly, understand—waiting for him to make a move. I flirted Outrageously. Shamelessly. And nothing.

My friends almost staged an intervention.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, I marched down the hall to find him, and I dragged him to my room.

“Come with me to my room; I have something I want to say to you.”

He seemed a bit bewildered but willing, and when we got to my place, I shut the door. I was so very nervous. What if he didn’t like me back? Was he just too much work? I mean, obviously, the boy was not taking the hints. Maybe it was me. Maybe he was On Purpose being dense because he didn’t like me back.

I swallowed hard and turned him to face me. I held his shoulders and looked into his eyes.

I couldn’t breathe very deeply. My heart was in the way. But I took as deep a breath as I could.

“I just want to let you know that I am very, very attracted to you, and I’m wondering what you’re going to do about it…”

Beat.

Heart in throat.

Beat.

“Um…”

Beat.

And then he was kissing me and there were delicious butterfly flutters in my tummy.

Oh, my.

And that is the story.

That was almost thirty years ago, and while we were not always together across those years, we found each other again eighteen years ago.

Not every couple gets a second chance. I am grateful that we did.

Last year, we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. So maybe we were a little slow on the draw. Okay, maybe he is.

He is my balance.

I am impetuous. He is thoughtful.

I am led by emotions. He, by his intellect.

I can be a bit…scattered. He is focused.

I am a hurricane. He is the Calm.

It’s not always easy.

But it is always worth it.

I truly do not know what I would do without him.

I asked him what kind of cake I could make him for his birthday.

Chocolate.

What I ended up making is at first glance a simple chocolate pound cake with a vanilla glaze. But it really is more than that. It is full of subtle layers of flavor that build on each other.

How to Make Mocha Caramel Pound Cake

As the name implies, there are a lot of flavor components that contribute their Goodness to this cake.

That means it’s not the easiest cake to make. There are a few extra steps than you’d need to make a “regular” poundcake.

But if you love chocolate, coffee, and caramel, I think you’ll want to give this a go.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ingredients

• sugar: You’ll use sugar twice, first to make the caramel and then in granulated form to cream with the brown sugar and butter
• heavy cream: This stops the caramelization process, so you’re basically making a rich caramel sauce to add to the cake batter
• cocoa powder: use your favorite cocoa powder here. Dutch process is not necessary, but you can use it if you have it
• coffee: a cup of strong brewed coffee makes up most of the liquid in this cake.
• butter: use unsalted butter so you can control the amount of salt you use
• cream cheese: I sub some cream cheese for a portion of the butter. It still lends the necessary fat but also brings a subtle tang to the whole shebang. You can use all butter–just substitute additional butter for the amount of cream cheese called for
• salt: snaps all the flavors into focus and counteracts any bitterness
• Baker’s Brew Coffee Spice (or use pumpkin spice): I love Baker’s Brew from Savory Spice Shop. It’s coffee, sugar, cocoa and spices, so if you don’t have any or don’t want to purchase it, you can substitute with some pumpkin spice, apple pie spice or any sweet baking spice blend that you enjoy. If substituting, use half the amount of Baker’s Brew called for
• vanilla: rounds out all the flavors
• brown sugar: brings a touch of molasses depth to the cake. It is definitely gilding the lily (that’s just what kind of cake it is), so if you’d rather, substitute more granulated sugar for the same weight of brown sugar
• eggs: lends structure, emulsifiers, and fat to the cake. Almost all my pound cakes call for 5 large eggs
• cake flour: You can use all purpose if you’d like. I tend to prefer the more delicate crumb that cake flour buys you, but either will work
• baking powder: a relatively small amount, but it does help lighten the cake a bit
• baking soda: neutralizes the acidic ingredients (coffee and cocoa powder, and to a lesser extent, the brown sugar)

For the Glaze:

The glaze for this cake is a pretty standard glaze. I like to start with butter because the subtle flavor tempers the sweetness while the fat helps to carry the flavors

• butter: I prefer to use unsalted and then add my own salt, but use what you have. If you use salted butter, you may not need any additional salt, but taste to make sure
• powdered sugar: provides the sweetness and the bulk of the frosting/glaze
• salt: I generally use fine salt for glazes since the smaller crystals dissolve more readily
• vanilla: to round out the flavors. I almost always use a little vanilla in all my glazes unless it’s going on a lemon pound cake.
• milk: just enough to make a thick but pourable glaze. You can use whole milk or 2% here, or even a plant-based milk

Procedure

There are quite a few steps involved in making this cake. Arguably the hardest is making the caramel.

Here’s how to do that part and then how to put the rest of the batter together:

To Make the Caramel Sauce

• Bring water and sugar to a boil.
• Cook together until the sugar turns a deep amber color.
• Remove from the heat and add the cream. Stir and then cool until just warm.

Once the caramel is done, you’ll combine the caramel flavor with the mocha flavor:

• Whisk cocoa powder and vanilla into coffee.
• Whisk the caramel sauce together with the cocoa/coffee mixture. This mixture is now “the wet ingredients.”

From there on out, this cake is straight-up creaming method.

1. Whisk dry ingredients together.
2. Cream butter, cream cheese, sugar, and brown sugar together.
3. Whisk the eggs together and gradually add them to the creamed mixture.
4. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and wet ingredients, beginning and ending with dry.

Once the batter is put together, bake in your prepared pan/s–note that if you are using a 10-cup pan (like the swirly pan), you will have to bake some of your batter in a separate pan. To bake the whole amount of batter, you’ll need a 12-cup Bundt pan.

Q & A

Other Cakes You May Enjoy

For a meltingly tender pound cake, you may like my whipping cream pound cake. So very good!

For an old-fashioned chocolate cake, it’s hard to beat my rocky road sheet cake, which is a chocolate mayonnaise cake with delicious rocky road frosting.

If you’re looking for a gluten-free pound cake option, I think you’ll really like my friend Sandi’s gluten-free lemon pound cake. She is a master of gluten-free baking!

And to take advantage of summer peaches, try my friend Brandy’s peach Bundt cake. Vanilla and peaches–a winning combination!

A Note About Measurements

Thank you for spending some time with me today and allowing me to tell our love story.

Enjoy the mocha pound cake, and have a marvelous day.