Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on AnnArbor.com. Read past columns here.

Chocolate Pound Cake takes me back to the first month of the cake project when I was baking pound cake each week. Oh what fond memories I have of learning the proper way to cream butter and sugar and perfecting my mixing techniques. I'd done it so many time this one would be a cake walk...or so I thought.

I read the recipe. Dry ingredients first? Reverse-mixing technique? What kind of stunt are you trying to pull, Mel?

If I've learned anything about baking in the past three months (and I've learned TONS, believe me), I know that the purpose of the standard mixing technique is to beat lots of air in the batter to aid the cake in rising.

Reverse-mixing does just the opposite and produces a dense, moist cake instead of a light, fluffy one. Both mixing methods result in different cake textures but the taste remains the same. It's delicious either way.

I started by mixing my flour, sugar and cocoa. Then I added my fat (butter and shortening) and the milk. At this point, the batter is pretty thick. I was concerned my hand mixer would give out on me. It proved to be the little mixer that could and kept on beating that batter as I incorporated the additional ingredients. I added the eggs last and ended up with a smooth brown batter.

This cake was my excuse to buy a new cake pan. I'd grown tired of using my straight-sided tube pan for all the pound cakes that had come before so I treated myself to a Nordicware classic bundt.

I don't know if it was the pan, my expert mixing skills or that bit of love I mixed in, but one beautiful cake came out of the oven. I sprinkled the cake with a little confectioner's sugar for some added pizazz.

Chocolate lovers and non-chocoholics alike will adore this cake. It's not too chocolate-y but contains just enough cocoa to satisfy a craving. Because of the amount of fat in the cake, it keeps well. Slices can be frozen, which would be handy during those unexpected chocolate attacks. The full recipe appears on the Leite's Culinaria Web site. Whip one up - in reverse - and let me know what you think!

Erin Mann is a contributor for AnnArbor.com and ruining diets one cake at a time. Email her at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.