Happiness from the Kitchen: Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake

Pound cake! Those two simple words conjur up memories of that crap Sara Lee puts out. Frozen loaves of processed fats and chemicals which we have all had the pleasure of taking days off our lives with -- Sara Lee, the culinary version of Lizzy Borden!

Give me a break. You want pound cake, you make it yourself. It's easy. I would even bet Paris Hilton could make a pound cake. Okay, that might be pushing it. So, what is a pound cake? Originally it was a pound of butter, a pound of sugar and a pound of eggs -- thus the name pound cake. The day after it was made, it was loaded into cannons and used in the Civil War (you won't find that tidbit of history in any book 'cuz we just made it up).

Out here in the southwest we love our pound cake. It really is a perfect dish. It is a great dessert and an even better breakfast when you slightly toast it. Though pound cake is good, we wanted to make it even better. We wanted to give it a texture you won't forget. We wanted to give it a taste that makes your tongue flap faster than Rosanne Barr on a treadmill. We accomplished that but, we weren't happy so... we added chocolate. OH HELL YEAH!

Ingredients needed to make Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake (makes 2 loaves):

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs, separated
• 2 Tbs. vanilla
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream

Steps:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil and flour a 10-inch tube pan or line the bottoms of 2 loaf pans with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder.
3. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar 5 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla until smooth.
4. With the mixer on low, beat in half of the flour mixture. Beat in the sour cream and follow that with the remaining flour.
5. In a mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form (see picture in slideshow).
6. Stir half of the egg whites into the batter until smooth. Fold the remaining eggs into the batter (this will lighten the batter).
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and even out.
8. Place in the oven and bake 90 minutes or until done (see Chef's Note).
9. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the pan and let cool on a rach until ready to slice and serve.

Chef's Note: Any type of bread or cake is done with the sides pull away from the pan. There really is no need to poke something into the product to see if it comes out clean. Also, when beating egg whites, if there is any type of "fat" in the bowl, the egg whites will not stiffen. Before beating egg whites wash out the bowl and dry it (or have an extra bowl).

The new cookbook from Chef Larry Edwards is now available from Amazon.com and bookstores worldwide. One of the most anticipated cookbooks of the year, "Edwardian Cooking: Inspired by Downton Abbey's Elegant Meals."