Chocolate Pound Cake with Fudge Glaze

This is a recipe I found on Pinterest and had to try, mainly because I had everything on hand. Here's the recipe, and at the end will be my suggestions.

CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE:


3 sticks margarine or butter

3 teaspoons vanilla

3 Cups sugar

1/2 Cup Cocoa

5 Eggs

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

3 Cups All Purpose Flour

1 Cups Milk

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GLAZE:

1 1/2 Cup Sugar

7 Tablespons Milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoon Shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 Tablespoons Margarine

1/2 Cup Cocoa

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Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour bundt pan, set aside. Cream butter in large mixing bowl. Add sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In separate bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Measure milk and stir vanilla into it. Add milk and dry ingredients alternately, mixing after each addition. Pour into pan and bake for one hour and twenty minutes. Let cool for ten minutes before removing from pan and allowing to cool completely before adding glaze.

1.For glaze, Combine sugar, cocoa, milk, shortening, margarine, and salt in heavy saucepan. Bring to a rolling , stirring constantly. Once it reaches a boil, allow to boil without stirring for two minutes, no more. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Stirr until cooled just slightly. Spoon over cooled cake.

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For starters, I've never baked anything from scratch that didn't require 1/4 teaspoon of salt, so I definitely added that. I have also discovered that room temperature butter AND eggs result in a better pound cake. I'm not sure if I should let the milk come to room temperature as well, or if that's food poisoning waiting to happen. Every oven is different so I need to cut the cooking time by ten full minutes. I pulled it out five minutes early and it wasn't over done, but might have been better if I pulled it out at the ten minute mark. And for the glaze, I definitely should have sifted the cocoa first. But I'm not a baker by trade, so I'm still pretty proud of the work!