Name: Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: ½ cup Boiling water; 4 tablespoons Unsweetened cocoa powder; 2½ cup Flour; 1 teaspoon Baking powder (follow instruction on packaging); 3 Eggs (separated); 5 oz Creme fraiche or sour cream; 10 tablespoons Butter (room temperature); 1 tablespoon Stevia or sweetener of choice; 4 oz Chocolate; 11 tablespoons Butter; 1 tablespoon Cocoa powder (unsweetened); ⅞ cup Heavy cream; ½ teaspoon Stevia or sweetener of choice; Some berries for decoration

Bored of the old flavors or just looking for an adventure in the wilderness? Untamed sour cream chocolate cake for our tastebuds to ride on!

It’s easy to get used to good things. It’s so easy that we don’t even think that life was possible without them at all. Like electricity, running water, internet, facebook and chocolate cake.

Chocolate cake is with us for some time but it wasn’t like this before a couple of really exciting people like Rodolphe LINDT found out how to make cocoa powder from the cocoa beans at the end of the XIX. century. In 1886 some decadent cooks added the cocoa powder to the batter instead just using it as an icing or filling and voila the chocolate cake had been born.

Since then various type of chocolate cakes have been invented by adding various layers and ingredients to the basic recipe. Finding the best chocolate cake or the original one giving it’s immense variety is an impossible feat as there isn’t any basic recipe carved into stone in a hidden cellar anywhere. Chocolate cake is a maverick evolving continuously with our taste through the years.

The best ever chocolate cake is thus is always the one we are having right now. Be it a German chocolate cake, Black Forest Cake or a Sacher-torte, we can’t go astray whichever is stuck on our dessert fork.

The really decadent versions must be the moist chocolate cakes. These are not only made of chocolate but most of the time dripping chocolate as well. How mouthwatering is when we see the light breaking into million splinters on the surface of the moist spongy cake.

We can go even further in our journey of shameless pleasures and add a thick layer of airy light cream to the base. It’s like biting into a duvet filled with chocolate feathers topped with a chocolate cloud. When it gets into our mouth just melts away immediately, like it was never existed leaving only the taste of the chocolate heaven behind.

Various ingredients can be used to make the base moist but our favorite must be sour cream or even better creme fraiche. It provides a rich texture, splendid taste and moisture for the pastry to keep fresh for a couple of days. However, not one chocolate cake has ever survived that long in a family fridge.

Speaking of fridges this sour cream chocolate cake isn’t the perfect choice for standing in front of fridge dessert bonanzas. It’s a cake to be enjoyed as a treat on a plate with a dessert fork. The plain reason for that is because it needs some time to warm up to room temperature and soften up a little bit. Nonetheless this process can be urged by throwing it into the microwave for 10 seconds which sometimes will melt the bottom of the top layer and chocolate will run all around the plate. #dunk&lick

This is a sugar free chocolate cake recipe which uses stevia sweetener but as always it can be substituted with any sweetener of choice, preferably something natural as to stay as healthy as possible. Berries on top are there to feed the eyes which is big part of the experience, so adding some funky looking fruit on top will enhance the feeling big time. Fruits low on sugar like most berries are great companions for the chocolate cakes as they can provide contrast in taste with the sweet cake.

Ingredients

Pastry

½ cup / 100ml Hot water
4 tablespoons Unsweetened cocoa powder
2½ cup / 300g Flour
1 teaspoon / 12g Baking powder (follow instruction on packaging)
3 Eggs (separated)
5 oz / 150ml Creme fraiche or sour cream
10 tablespoons / 150g Butter (room temperature)
1 tablespoon Stevia or sweetener of choice

Frosting

4 oz / 120g Chocolate
11 tablespoons / 150g Butter
1 tablespoon Cocoa powder (unsweetened)
⅞ cup / 200 ml Heavy cream
½ teaspoon Stevia or sweetener of choice
Some berries for decoration

Kitchen utensils

9.8″ x 8″ / 25cm x 20.5cm Baking tray

How to make sour cream chocolate cake

Pastry

Pour boiling water into the cup and mix it with the cocoa powder. Do not leave any lump in it then set it aside and wait until it cools down a bit. Mix flour with the baking powder.
Separate eggs.
Beat egg whites until hard peaks form.
Pour sour cream into the lukewarm cocoa mixture. Mix to get an even, creamy texture.
Slice butter and put it into a mixing bowl to whisk until it becomes almost white and creamy.
Put the yolks one by one into the creamy butter. Add the stevia or sweetener of choice and keep whisking it.
When all of the yolks are in the creamy butter, turn the mixer to low speed and add the cocoa sour cream mixture.
Add the flour bit by bit too.
Mix each addition just until incorporated completely.
Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites.
Once it gets a homogeneous texture pour batter into the prepared tray.
Place it into the 350°F / 180°C preheated oven for 40 minutes to bake.
When it’s baked transfer the cake onto a wire rack and let it cool down completely.

Frosting

Melt chocolate.
Slice room temperature butter and put it into a mixing bowl. Whisk it for about 5-10 minutes to get a light yellow, soft and creamy texture.
Put in stevia or sweetener of choice and cocoa powder then keep mixing until incorporated with the butter cream evenly.
When chocolate is melted take the bowl off the steam and let it cool a bit before folding it into the butter cream. It’s important not to pour hot chocolate into the butter mixture as it can spoil the whole frosting. (Hot chocolate would melt the butter.)
Beat heavy cream in a different bowl then mix into the frosting too.

Assembly

If the cake’s top is not flat enough cut its top off.
The base has to be completely cool as it would make the frosting with the butter and cream runny which would be quite sad after all of this hard work.
Put some berries on top for decoration.

Note: Keep cake in the fridge and take slices out 20 minutes before serving to allow it to warm up to room temperature so the creamy topping would taste as it should. Optionally we can place a slice into the microwave for 10 – 15 seconds if we haven’t got time to waste.

Flavors aren’t just ingredients but shapes too. These cakes come in squares but they are at all not edgy:

F.A.Q.

What does sour cream do to a cake?

Adding sour cream to the butter gives the cake more moisture and flavor. Sour cream produces very fine crumb because it tenderizes the gluten in the flour.

Does sour cream make a cake moist?

Yes, sour cake makes a cake moist and depending on the fat content of the sour cream it makes it more rich in flavor too.

What can replace sour cream in a cake recipe?

Sour cream can be replaced by creme fraiche in fact the two are interchangeable in every recipe. Also in case of emergency we can use yogurts or even better Greek yogurt.