Martha Stewart's Triple Layer Poundcake
Try this Martha Stewarts Triple Layer Poundcake recipe, or contribute your own.
Try this Martha Stewarts Triple Layer Poundcake recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (252 grams) unsalted but room temperature, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
- 3 large eggs room temperature whisked
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) whole milk room temperature
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) sugar
- 1 3/4 cups (225 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons (6 grams) baking powder
- 3 tablespoons (18 grams) dutch-process cocoa powder
- 4 ounces (112 grams) semisweet chocolate melted and cooled
- Carbohydrate 0.33726 g
- Cholesterol 126.9 mg
- Fat 2.982504 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 3.774504 g
- Saturated Fat 0.929784 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (42g)
- Sodium 163.00056 mg
- Sugar 0.33726 g
- Trans Fat 0.5004024 g
- Calories 45 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla.
- In another bowl, beat together sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt on low speed.
- Continue beating while adding butter until mixture is crumbly.
- Add half of milk mixture; beat on medium-high until fluffy, 1 minute.
- Add remaining milk mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds.
- In another large bowl, whisk 2 tablespoons cocoa into chocolate.
- Stir in 1½ cups (285 grams) batter.
- Spoon into prepared pan, smoothing top with a small offset spatula.
- Whisk remaining 1 tablespoon cocoa into another 1½ cups (285 grams) batter in bowl; spoon over dark-chocolate layer and smooth top.
- Spoon in remaining batter; smooth top.
- Bake until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 30 minutes (if top is browning too quickly, tent with foil).
- Let cool in pan 15 minutes.
- Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool completely, about 2 hours.
Standard pound cake formulas rely on equal weights of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar, but this variation alters the standard fat-to-flour ratio by splitting the batter into distinct chocolate intensity tiers. When incorporating the butter into the dry ingredients before adding the liquids, the fat coats the flour proteins to inhibit excessive gluten development, yielding a tight, velvety crumb that must support two heavy cocoa-infused strata. If the oven temperature exceeds 325 degrees Fahrenheit, the exterior will set and dome while the dense interior remains raw, leading to a collapsed center during cooling.
Dividing the base batter requires precision to ensure the dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and plain vanilla sections bake evenly despite their differing densities. Whisking the melted semisweet chocolate and Dutch-process cocoa powder into the batter increases the overall solids content, which slows thermal conductivity through the center of the 9-by-5-inch loaf pan and extends total baking time to roughly ninety minutes. Tent the loaf with aluminum foil if the top browns prematurely at the forty-five-minute mark.
Bakers seeking a lighter crumb can substitute cake flour for the unbleached all-purpose flour at a one-to-one volumetric ratio, though the reduced protein content weakens structural integrity slightly.
