Sourdough Chocolate Cake

I found a gem of a recipe that even my choco-holics like and is perhaps the least processed cake ever. And is delicious and moist and yummy. I mean, really, really yummy. Too yummy to keep to myself!


Here it is and this includes my changes. I've made it twice now, once plain, once with frosting. The page with the version I started with is here.

SOURDOUGH CHOCOLATE CAKE


INGREDIENTS:


½ cup sourdough starter

1 ½ cups whole wheat flour

2 cups sucanat

1 cup milk


¾ cup powdered cocoa (not instant)

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda


2 eggs

½ cup melted butter

¾ cup cold coffee

1 teaspoon vanilla


PROCEDURES:


Put the starter in a large bowl, mix in flour and milk. Cover loosely and allow to stand at room temperature at least a couple hours, preferably 8 hours or overnight.

Add the rest of the ingredients, dry ingredients first, then wet.

Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. Pour in the batter, which will be thin, and bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the layers test done when poked with a toothpick. The cake will have pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Allow to cool about 10 minutes before removing from pans, then finish cooling the layers on wire rack. Do not frost until the cake is completely cold.

A mild chocolate butter cream frosting is nice with this cake.

Adapted from: “Baking with Sourdough.”

Pumkin Cake with Orange Frosting

~Sylwinn posted this on FB and it is now one of my favorite~

I altered the icing for a less sweet drizzle on top~

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

1 can of pumpkin (15 oz)

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

3 t cinnamon

1 t ginger

1/2 t cloves

**********************

heat oven 350, beat eggs, sugar, oil, pumpkin until smooth.

stir in flour, b.p. , b.s., salt, spices.

Spread into greased 15x10 glass baking pan.

Bake 25-30 mins- although I go 40.

Let cool before frosting.

***********************

Orange Frosting

1/3 cup soft butter

2-3 cups confectioners sugar

3-4 T orange juice

1/2 t vanilla

grated zest from orange

beat ingredients until smooth~ ice your cake

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat chocolate cake

I really wanted to make a cake today with Hugo, but alas, we were without a car and lacking lots of staple cake ingredients. I scoured the internet until I found this recipe whcih was close enough to what I had to make. I made some substitutions - the original called for sour cream, but thats just not something I would ever have. So I subbed whole fat yogurt. If you have more time and some cheese cloth I think the recipe would be even better if you drained the yogurt for about 30 minutes. Or, if its a new container use the creamy stuff on the top or use labneh.

Anyway, this cake is wonderful!! I really like eating whole-grain treats - it helps me avoid sugar triggered migraines and helps avoid those crazy blood sugar swings you get with all white-carb treats. I like the taste of whole wheat too. But this is definitely decadent treat food. No applesauce instead of butter here. I imagine it would be good with sucanat or maple syrup too.

Decadent Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

* 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
* 1 1/4cups sifted organic whole wheat pastry flour
* 2 tsp baking soda (1 tsp if you are using sourcream)
* 1/4 tsp sea salt
* 1/4 cup butter, softened at room temperature
* 1 1/4 cup natural brown sugar, lightly packed
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
* 1/2 plain whole milk yogurt
* 1/2 cup boiling water

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Grease and flour a 9” cake pan.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
3. Melt the chocolate and then allow it to cool slightly. Be careful to not allow it to harden.
4. Beat the butter and sugar for two minutes. Add the eggs and beat for an additional two minutes. Beat in the vanilla and cooled chocolate.
5. Gradually stir in the sifted flour mixture in approximate thirds, alternating each time with 1/4 cup of the yogurt.
6. Stir in the boiling water. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
7. Bake for 25 minutes. Do not overbake this cake! Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

I frosted this with an almond butter frosting. Its great. Mix powdered sugar, almond butter and butter to taste. Add milk to get the consistency you want. You can also beat in a spoon-full of coco-powder of an ounce or so of melted bittersweet chocolate. I think I used about 1/2 cup almond butter 1/2 c butter 1c powdered sugar. Not really sure though. I ended up adding more butter at the end.