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This Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake is sure to impress anyone you serve it to! The brightness of the tangerine contrasted with the bitter richness of the dark chocolate is a killer flavor combination! This cake is light, tender, moist, and decadent! 

Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake topped with glaze

I was in the grocery store the other day and I saw a big bin full of the cutest little tangerines that still had the stem and leaves on them. I immediately knew I had to buy some. I had no plans of what I was going to make, I just knew it had to involve these cutie tangerines.

Fresh tangerines

I have always been a big fan of citrus and chocolate. There is just something about the contrast in flavors that really excites my taste buds! I decided on making a tangerine pound cake with really dark chocolate. I wanted the dark chocolate to contrast the sweetness of the pound cake and it really did! It turned out to be incredibly moist, lightly sweet, bright from the tangerine, and then slightly bitter from the chocolate. That is the definition of a perfect dessert for me. Lots of contrasts!

A slice of Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake with glaze

Let’s talk about cake flour for a moment. I know that a lot of people, including me not that long ago, avoid recipes that call for a flour other than all-purpose flour. But, here’s the thing. If you enjoy baking, think of cake flour as a pantry staple. Once you start using it and notice the huge difference in how light and tender your cakes come out, you won’t want to turn back. If you aren’t familiar, cake flour is a very finely ground flour with a lower protein content than all-purpose flour. Cake flour has about an 8% protein content while all-purpose flour sits at about 10-11%. While the finely ground characteristic is part of what makes cake flour so wonderful for cakes, this lower protein content is also desirable because the protein strands are what forms gluten when liquid is added. For a cake, you want minimal gluten development. This gives you a very light and tender cake which is all we really want in life. Right?!

 A slice of Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake with glaze

Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake with glaze
Yield: 8-10 Servings

Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

This Tangerine Dark Chocolate Pound Cake is sure to impress anyone you serve it to! The brightness of the tangerine contrasted with the bitter richness of the dark chocolate is a killer flavor combination! This cake is light, tender, moist, and decadent! 

Ingredients

  • 3 cups cake flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 cups (12 oz) unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 TBSP tangerine zest (could substitute with orange juice)
  • 2 TBSP tangerine juice (could substitute with orange zest)
  • 3.5 oz dark chocolate bar, chopped up (I use Lindt 70% dark chocolate)
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 3-5 TBSP tangerine juice (or orange juice)
  • 1 tsp tangerine zest

Instructions

For the Cake
  1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
  2. Oil or spray a 12-cup bundt pan. Add about a 1/4 cup of flour to the pan and tap it around until it is covering the whole pan (including the sides) with a light layer of flour. Tap the excess flour out of the pan.
  3. In a large bowl add the cake flour, baking powder, and kosher salt to the bowl. Whisk for about 20 seconds to aerate and incorporate the dry ingredients together. Set aside.
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar with the mixer on medium speed until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Periodically stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  5. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.
  6. Alternate adding part of the flour mixture with part of the milk mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Alternating the dry ingredients with the wet will help the butter base absorb the liquid more easily and give you a nicer crumb. Mix the batter just until everything is incorporated and then stop! The more you mix once the flour has been added, the tougher cake you will have.
  7. Stir in the tangerine zest, juice, and the chopped up chocolate.
  8. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake at 350F for 55-65 minutes, or until a tester comes out with moist crumbs.
  9. Cool the cake on a cooling rack for about an hour before flipping it out of the pan. You may need to loosen the sides a bit with a butter knife. Put the plate or platter over top of the pan then quickly but carefully turn the whole pan over so that the platter is now on the bottom. Tap the pan all around until you feel the cake release before lifting the pan off.
  10. Pour the tangerine glaze over the cake and serve. (recipe to follow)
For the Glaze
  1. Place the powdered sugar in a bowl and whisk in enough juice until a glaze is formed and is at the consistency desired. You want it to be then enough to pour. Whisk in the zest.
  2. Pour the glaze over the cake.
© Bettie
Category: All Recipes