Rich Marble Pound Cake with Chocolate Glaze

3 cups (12 oz.) cake flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 (17.6 oz.) cups sugar, divided

1/2 cup (1.4 oz.) natural cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)

6 Tbsp. water

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks/12 oz.) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

5 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 10-inch bundt pan and dust with flour.

2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the cocoa powder, 1/2 cup sugar and water until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

4. Place softened butter in the bowl of a mixer and cream for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Gradually add the 2 cups of sugar, mixing well for 4 minutes until mixture is well blended.

Add the vanilla and mix well.

5. At medium speed, beat in the eggs one at a time.

6. At low speed add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions. Begin and end with the flour mixture.

7. Add 3 cups of the butter batter to the cocoa mixture and fold until well blended.

8. Spoon a third of the plain batter into the bottom of the bundt pan. Add a layer of the cocoa batter. Then add another layer of plain batter. After which add the last layer of cocoa batter and end with the plain batter.

9. Bake the cake for about 60 - 70 minutes or until a cake tested comes out clean. Cool the cake on a wire rack for about 20 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool completely before glazing.

Glaze:

4.25 oz. dark chocolate (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

1/3 cup heavy cream

1. In a heat proof bowl break the chocolate bar into pieces, add the milk, and cook over a double boiler until all the chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth.

2. Remove from heat and set aside for about 7 minutes. Keep an eye on it because you do not want it to become too hard to drizzle.

3. Once glaze is thick enough to drizzle, glaze the entire cake.

This makes a beautiful tall cake

Note: If you want to run a knife through your cake batter to swirl it before baking, you can. I left it in layers because I felt like a layer kind of cake, and I figured the baking process would create its own marbling effect.