Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

Starting the new year with, surprise surprise, chocolate cake! It’s light and soft, similar to a sponge cake, with a unique flavour from sour cream in the batter and then it’s also layered with a tangy sour cream frosting. Comes together quickly and it’s just the thing to make and eat while we wonder what this year is going to bring us and hope that whatever it is, it’s better than 2020!

Years ago my Mom used to make a Russian cake that was rich and delicious but I’d never tried making it myself. So when I recently came across an article in Mint Lounge that had a recipe for a Russian sour cream cake, I couldn’t wait to give it a shot. I found though that the texture was much airier than I remembered the one from my childhood being, and it needed a bit more flavour so I added some butter and more cocoa. Tinkering with what my Mom recollected and with this new recipe, I finally landed on a really delicious, light cake.

This isn’t a fudgy, super moist chocolate cake. It’s instead more of a sponge, soft and pillowy. I used Hershey’s Super Dark cocoa for a deeper colour and flavour and I do recommend it. Traditionally this kind of cake is made with layers of vanilla and chocolate cake, but I wanted to make a smaller one and settled on just two layers of chocolate. A combination of baking powder and baking soda created the texture I wanted, airy but not a very loose crumb. The sour cream is essential in both the batter and the frosting and I don’t recommend any substitutes, see the recipe notes for more info!

The frosting tastes a bit like cream cheese frosting, but lighter and silkier. I added vanilla for extra flavour and it really brings so much to the cake, don’t skip it! I also dusted the top with regular cocoa powder for fun 🙂

This cake is best eaten at room temperature so if you’re refrigerating it for later, definitely leave it out for a bit before digging in. Since it has less fat in it compared to standard cakes, it needs time to come back to its original soft texture. It’s a unique, very easy cake and I hope you’ll try it soon!

Please read the recipe notes before beginning.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

A soft and fluffy chocolate sour cream sponge cake with sour cream frosting

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 35 minutes mins

Total Time: 55 minutes mins

Makes: 8 slices

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Ingredients

  

For the cake

• 1/2 cup caster sugar (75 gms)
• 1/4 cup butter, at room temperature (55 gms)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs at room temperature (I'm not sure of substitutes)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (lightly heaped), at room temperature (113 gms) (see notes)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (120 gms)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsps Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder (see notes)
• Pinch of salt if using unsalted butter

For the frosting

• 1 and 3/4 cups sour cream, slightly cold but not firm (400 gms)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted (55 gms)

Instructions

• Grease an 8 inch round cake tin or springform pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 175 C.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a hand mixer on low speed until lighter in colour. The quantity of butter is small so it will not be a creamy mixture like in regular cake batters. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat till combined.
• Now add the sour cream, beating briefly until smooth. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt (if using). Stir by hand and then run the hand mixer through it again to get a smooth, not very thick batter.
• Pour into the prepared tin and smoothen out the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. (The top will dome a bit and some cracks are to be expected. If you want a totally flat surface, look up how to use 'cake strips' that are moist strips of cloth wrapped around the pan during baking.)
• Let the cake cool completely in the tin before frosting.
• To make the frosting, combine the sour cream, vanilla extract and icing sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk (or use a hand mixer on low speed) until smooth and creamy.
• Level off the top of the cake if needed, then slice it in two halves horizontally. Lift off the top half with a large flat metal spoon or spatula and set it aside nearby. Spread about a third of the frosting on the lower half in an even layer. Gently lift and place the top half of the cake on it and spread the remaining frosting on the surface and sides.
• While I love eating cakes freshly frosted, this one benefits from overnight refrigeration. The cake layers become more moist and the frosting sets well. Before eating, let the cake come back to room temperature so that it becomes soft and light and the frosting is a little creamier, then dust the top with some cocoa if you like. Slice and dig in!
• Store the cake in an airtight tin in the fridge for 4 to 5 days. Happy baking!

Notes

*I used RRO Dairy sour cream here which I found at Nature's Basket/Big Basket. Mooz and Amul also make sour cream, in India. I haven't tried any substitutes or homemade versions. Sour cream lends a unique flavour here and is essential to the recipe.

*If using regular natural cocoa instead of Hershey's Special Dark, your cake will be lighter in colour and a little milder in flavour too. It doesn't do any harm however, so if that's what you have, go ahead and use it.

*This recipe makes more frosting than you see in the photos because personally I like a thinner layer. But if you make the recipe as written, you will have plenty to fill the middle and spread on top of the cake. You can also increase or decrease the sugar in the frosting to your liking.

*Adapted from Mint Lounge

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