Sunday, 18 2010

kitchy weekends: sour cream cake

contributed by food guest blogger Becoming Lola

I wanted cake. I needed chocolate. I am needy, yes I agree. But let’s not make this about my flaws. This should be more about my huge blogger (girl) crush on Paris Pastry (which means it should be your huge new crush too, seeing as how I have exceptional taste and you should follow everything I say…no that was not sarcasm) and since reading through her archives time and time again, she has expressed this undeniable infatuation with not only Nigella Lawson, but this particular chocolate cake recipe that has been nagging me ever since. Sour Cream Chocolate Cake to be exact, and it comes highly recommended by Paris Pastry, so that’s enough for me.

Sour Cream Chocolate Cake
adapted from Nigella Lawsons’s Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake via Paris Pastry

• 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 (1.5 sticks)
• 3 tablespoons best cocoa
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup buttermilk (which I added for ultramoistness, but eliminate if you like)
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Then, using an electric mixer, add the butter.
3. In a wide-mouthed measuring cup, whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, milk, eggs and vanilla, then slowly add this cocoa mixture to the ingredients in the bowl, beating until thoroughly combined.
4. Pour the batter into 2 8-inch pans buttered or lined with parchment or wax paper and bake for about 20-30 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.

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

Method:

1. To make the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water or double broiler.
2. Let cool a little, then stir in the sour cream, vanilla and syrup.
3. Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and a little hot water, blending until smooth.
4. 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.