Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

I had a tub of sour cream in my fridge for months that was about to expire (April 2th) and I really didn't want to throw it away so I decided to make use of it. I glanced at the index of my baking-books for sour cream and I could only find one recipe with sour cream (in its name): Nigella Lawson's 'Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream Chocolate Icing'. It looked vaguely familiar so I browsed the chocolate cakes at Nigella.com and it turns out that this cake also goes by the name of 'Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake'. The overall taste of this cake is amazing and exceeded my expectations. I can't really say how the cake itself, with no icing, tastes because I only tried it with the icing and the icing is really chocolate heaven!!! Beats the Nutella frosting I made a couple of weeks ago easily! So my review is based on the combination of the sour cream cake and sour cream icing: 5 out of 5, one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever made (or tasted for that matter). Very moist and gooey and rich.

Ingredients for the cake:
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons best cocoa
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Ingredients for the icing:
- 3 ounces milk chocolate
- 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- ½ teaspoon hot water

Instructions for the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Then, using an electric mixer, add the butter.
- In a wide-mouthed measuring cup, whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then slowly add this cocoa mixture to the ingredients in the bowl, beating until thoroughly combined. (I added ¼ cup milk because the batter didn't have a dropping consistency)
- Pour the batter into 2 8-inch (I used 2 9-inch) pans buttered or lined with parchment or wax paper and bake for 30 minutes (mine needed 25 minutes). When they’re ready the cakes should be starting to shrink back from the edges of the tins. Leave for 10 minutes in their pans on racks, then turn out to cool.

Instructions for the icing:
- To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave or in a bowl over hot water. (I went for the latter; smallest chance of failing)
- Let cool a little, then stir in the sour cream, vanilla and syrup.
- Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and a little hot water, blending until smooth.
- When you’ve got the texture right - thick enough to cover but supple enough to spread, adding more sugar or water as required - you can ice the cakes.




Two 9-inch pans waiting for their trip into the oven.

The fabulously flat cakes all done.

Gorgeous melted chocolate.

1.

2.

And done!





The sour cream chocolate icing in the middle made it all very moist and gooey (and delicious).

A chocolate Pacman cake!