Sour Cream Chocolate Cake

Submitted by Chef Jean

"This recipe comes from Dede Wilson's "The Wedding Cake Book". It's a rich chocolate cake that is not too light or too dense. I have made a few adjustments. This cake freezes well."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 5mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Yields: 1 cake
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 3 1⁄2 cups cake flour, unsifted
• 1⁄2 cup special dark cocoa (Hershey's)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1⁄8 cups butter, room temperature (2 1/4 sticks)
• 1 1⁄4 cups sugar
• 1⁄2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3 eggs
• 1 1⁄2 cups sour cream

directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2,8 or 9 inch cake pans with parchement paper, grease and flour bottom and sides of pans.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter until fluffy. Gradually add the sugars scraping the bowl once or twice during this process.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping bowl after each addition.
5. Alternately add the flour mixture and sour cream in three additions. When adding the flour, pulse the mixer on and off to avoid flour flying everywhere. After all he flour and sour cream have been blended in, scrape bowl and mix for an additional minute.
6. Pour the batter(it is quite thick) into the cake pans and smooth the top with a spatula. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted the center cames out clean.

Reviews

[Elisabetta47]

This was a big hit. I cooked it in a decorative mold bundt pan for 45 minutes, let it sit for 10 & then removed & sprinkled with powdered sugar when it was cool. The only change I made was to substitute some whole milk raspberry yogurt for some of the sour cream which gave it a nice, subtle oomph. As one reviewer noted, it's a dense cake & may seem a bit dry by the standards of a typical frosted cake; but the Italians are wary of frosting and love this almost pound cake-like texture. It's perfect for lunch-box packing. Thanks, Jean.

 

[momaphet]

This cake has a nice flavor, though it's not a very dark chocolate. I added two tsp. of vanilla and 3/4 tsp of Starbucks Via which added a nice nuance. It has a good crumb texture - fine but dense but was a bit dry overall. I cooked it 45 mins. which is what it took to have the tooth pick come out clean, cooking less might make it less dry but I'm not sure if the center would have been completely cooked. I topped it with a nice dark fudge frosting. Made for ZWT 7 for the Food.commandos

 

[Chef Kate]

This IS a lovely cake--not too dense, just rich enough, moist. I added some espresso powder to accentuate the chocolate flavor; otherwise I made the cake as directed. I split each of the cakes and so had four layers of quite delicious cake--a beautiful base for a birthday cake. Thanks, Chef!