Chocolate Sourdough Cake (or why following the recipe is sometimes a good idea)

Black Butte Ranch Lodge Restaurant in Central Oregon has made a chocolate sourdough cake for their dessert menu for decades.  Sometime during my childhood, the restaurant shared this recipe with the Junior League of Corvallis for a cookbook.  I remember it as a fluffy, chocolatey, delicious cake.  I've even made the cake when I last had a starter several years ago (legend had it that starter came from friends who gathered every summer at Black Butte).

With my new starter I really wanted to try this cake.  I planned to write about it several weeks ago when I had planned to bake and take the cake to an Easter dinner with family.  Several of my Bread 101 colleagues were dubious that a chocolate and sourdough cake would taste good, and I was determined that it would.

I baked the cake in two 9-inch round pans, and mostly followed the recipe except that I was out of the dry non-fat milk that the recipe calls for so used regular milk and used 1/2 whole wheat to match my starter rather than unbleached white four.  The cake itself tasted fine.  I allowed it to cool all day between a birthday party and soccer game.  Once I had my children in bed, I finally had time to frost the cake.  Only then did I realize that I was out of powdered sugar, a key ingredient in the mocha buttercream frosting.

Hum, what to do. It was Saturday at 9pm, and I really didn't want to go to the store.

I decided to try a "Fluffy White Frosting" recipe that I remember from many childhood birthday cakes with sugar, egg whites, and vanilla.  I have never successfully made this frosting, but again I was determined.  I boiled the sugar to 238F...well not really 238F because I was having a hard time reading my thermometer so it was probably only 236F.  Then I poured the sugar into my egg whites that were not yet beaten stiff.  I tried to beat them with the hand blender while pouring in the sugar, but that didn't seem to work. Only later did I learn that I should have beaten the egg whites while the sugar was boiling.  So determined I put the bowl in the freezer.  It was sort of thicker, but not really.  I mis-measured the vanilla too and added too much.  So I had this overly runny, overly vanillaed frosting which oddly enough I decide to use to frost my cake.

I got a plate ready and placed the first layer on top.  Then, I started spreading the frosting.  Well, really I poured the frosting which quickly ran to the edges of my plate.  But undaunted, I grabbed the second layer from across the kitchen.  The following dialog ensued.

Me, "Oh no! Oh no!"

Layer number two of the cake broke apart as I carried it two feet across the kitchen.  No worry.  The cake was just for my family.  They wouldn't mind broken bits so I picked up the pieces off of the floor.  The 5-second rule had not yet been broken, and I placed the broken bits of layer number two.  Time to pour, oh, I mean spread the frosting.

Me, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!"

Darling Husband (DH), "What's wrong?"

Me, "The frosting is running off of the cake an onto the counter."

DH, coming into the kitchen to check, "Why is the cake broken?"

Me, "I had to carry it across the kitchen. That normally works."

DH, "Why is the frosting all over the counter?"

Me, "It's too runny because I didn't boil it enough.  But I think it still tastes ok and no one will mind."

We tasted this frosting.

DH, "This frosting tastes like alcohol. What's in it?"

Me, "Hum, seems like there's too much vanilla.  Maybe it tastes ok on the cake."

Both take bite.  It didn't taste ok on the cake.

DH, "Did you follow a recipe?!"

Me, "Yes. Well except for the flour and dry milk."

DH, "Is it supposed to taste this way?"

Me, cutting a piece to try, "No."

We didn't take the cake to Easter dinner.  We dumped it in the sink, turned on the water and washed it down the drain.

I would have to to try again another day.

Chocolate Sourdough Cake Take Two

My Bread 101 students had an assignment to have a debate about GMO wheat and take the persona of various stakeholders.  One student joked that the winning team should get a prize. They all did a nice job. Ah-ha chocolate cupcakes for everyone!

The flour, Euphoria chocolate, and starter have to do a pre-ferment for several hours.

Then they are combined with the typical sugar, butter, vanilla cake ingredients.

Cupcakes are easier to handle than 9-inch cake layers.

The mocha frosting tastes better with powdered sugar than non-stiff egg whites and too much vanilla.

Success!  Yes, following the recipe is a good idea.

My best loaf yet!

I've had varying success with baking bread at home.  My father-in-law, brother, and mom who are all excellent bread bakers have shared wisdom and recipes, but still I haven't been successful on repeated attempts.  This whole grain bread is nice and requires lots of babysitting and time is sometimes hard to find.  Our flour experiment breads for the Bread 101 class were a mess and needed a much longer rising time.  This sourdough french bread looked funny but tasted ok for the first day then got stale very quickly.  Amy's sourdough bread tastes delicious and has lots of ingredients to boost the flavor.

I wanted to see if I could bake a good tasting bread with the most simple ingredients flour water, leaven, and salt.  I turned to the No Knead Bread Recipe published in the New York Times adapted from Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery.  It's incredibly easy to make with one 12-18 hour fermentation (or longer...I just baked one with a 24 hour fermentation including 8 hours overnight in the refrigerator) and one 2 hour rise and 40 minutes to bake.  Instead of kneading the dough needs to be folded and shaped one time each.

I've now made this recipe successfully three times!  There was one experiment that I had to throw away, but I learned that I can't substitute the water for my starter and that this dough needs to be well hydrated to rise.

On my first attempt, I followed the recipe exactly with white flour. It turned out beautifully with a lovely crust and crumb.

Next, I tried it with half Red Fife and half soft white wheat from Lonesome Whistle Farm.  It also turned out well and had the rich taste of whole wheat flour.

What I really wanted to be able to do was to use my starter as part of the leaven.  I've experimented a couple of times and found that I can add a little more than 1/2 cup of starter on top of the regular ingredients.  More starter than that, the taste is overwhelming and the dough does not have enough liquid.  Success is exciting!

Look at that gorgeous bread!  My next trial is going to be to try and and bake this with whole wheat flour and see if I can bake really good loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread at home.