Recipe: McCall's Chocolate Snickers Pound Cake

MCCALL'S CHOCOLATE SNICKERS POUND CAKE

FOR THE CAKE:
3 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sifted Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided use
5 large eggs
1 1/4 cups milk plus 1 tbsp chocolate extract, mixed
25 miniature or 10 fun-size Snickers bars, diced (7 oz total)
FOR THE GLAZE:
1/2 cup heavy (whipping) cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
18 Dove Promises (dark chocolate miniatures)
Peanut butter M&M's (for garnish)

TO MAKE THE CAKE:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour 12-cup tube pan.

In bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter and sugar on medium speed 5 minutes, until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. On low speed, alternately beat in flour mixture with milk mixture, until blended and smooth. Fold in diced bars. Scrape into prepared pan.

Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes, until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack 45 minutes; invert cake onto wire rack. Cool cake completely.

TO MAKE THE GLAZE:
In medium saucepan, over medium-high heat, stir together heavy cream, butter and the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil. Add chocolate; remove from heat. Let stand 3 minutes; whisk until smooth. Let cool 5 minutes, until glaze is slightly thickened but still pourable.

TO GLAZE THE CAKE:
Set wire rack with cake on large jelly-roll pan. Pour glaze over cake; with spatula, gently spread glaze to edges; push excess glaze over edges. Spread glaze over sides of cake to cover. refrigerate 1 hour to set glaze.

TO SERVE:
Transfer the chilled cake to a serving plate. To garnish, decorate with M&M's.

Adapted from source: McCall's Magazine, November 1999