I was looking forward to this month’s Avid Baker’s Choice. I love heavy, dense cakes, and pound cakes fit this bill.

Plus, it has been a while since a pound cake has been made around these parts.

Would you believe I have never made a chocolate pound cake?

Yep, true.

I have made Vanilla, Marble, Cradle, Mocha-Walnut Marbled, but never a whole chocolate pound cake.

And this one has almonds.

Which is one of my favorite nuts.

I never know how I have gone on and not fixed that little blimp in my baking life.

But it was time to put it on my list.

The cake was promptly written on the cooking/baking calendar for the weekend.

What this cake has going for it: It's easy. I bet you have most, if not all, of the ingredients in your pantry and refrigerator right now. If you want to be lazy, skip the fancy Frangipane and make it all chocolate.

It's very versatile if you ask me.

As you can see, I went fancy and used one of my decorative pans – which gave me an “oh-oh” moment after filling it with the yummy batter (Yes, I eat raw batter). The recipe called for a 10-by-3 bundt pan, and mine was just that, a total of 10x3.

Nevertheless, the batter came to the top of the pan.

See? a total “oh, oh” moment.

I debated. Should I take some out?

Should I go for it?

Would it spill?

A decision needed to be made.

I chose the road less traveled.

Translation – I was too lazy to scoop out some batter to play it safe, so I left it like that.

And then I became one of those bakers who just sat and watched through the oven's glass door as the cake rose and hoped and prayed over and over again for it not to spill all over the place.

I was NOT looking forward to cleaning up my oven over the weekend.

The cake grew.

I prayed.

It grew some more, and just when I thought it would spill over the pan edges some furious praying (and cursing) ensure

It worked because it did not spill over.

Next time?

Bigger pan.

Or cupcakes.

The results were spot-on. The cake was moist and very chocolatey, and the frangipane was rich in almond flavor. Is there room for improvement? Yes, I believe there is. For the next time, I would double the frangipane batter because I truly believe that it needs more ripples—it’s not enough. I would have loved for the cake to have more almond layers between all the strong chocolate goodness.

But, another good one from Flo Braker. If you would like to see the other ABC Baker results, head over here and leave some comments love.

Side note: Recipe from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2008).