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So, here it is, as requested. The most awesome cake ever.

Sour Cream Chocolate 3-Layer Cake

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

3 cups packed brown sugar

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup baking cocoa

1 tablespoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1-1/3 cups sour cream

1-1/3 cups boiling water

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Beat on low just until combined. Stir in water until blended. Pour into 3 greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

½ cup butter or margarine

3 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate

3 squares (1 ounce each) semisweet chocolate

5 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Cool 5 minutes. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, sour cream, and vanilla. Add chocolate mixture and beat until smooth. Store frosted cake in the refrigerator. Yield: Frosts a 3-layer cake.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

*glomps Sicon forever*

Hmm. Might have a go at this myself...

S_o_S wrote:Hmm. Might have a go at this myself...

But you are neither Scarab nor Qara.... I believe that's cheating.

BlackWolfe wrote:

S_o_S wrote:Hmm. Might have a go at this myself...

But you are neither Scarab nor Qara.... I believe that's cheating.

Screw the rules, he has taste buds!

(...I wonder if I could maybe make non-dairy versions of these when my birthday rolls around. Hmm...)

BlackWolfe wrote:

S_o_S wrote:Hmm. Might have a go at this myself...

But you are neither Scarab nor Qara.... I believe that's cheating.

Sometimes I LOVE being me

You should've heard my squeal on livechat when he posted this. I'm copying down the ingredients to my shopping list RIGHT now!

Scarab wrote:

BlackWolfe wrote:

S_o_S wrote:Hmm. Might have a go at this myself...

But you are neither Scarab nor Qara.... I believe that's cheating.

Sometimes I LOVE being me

You should've heard my squeal on livechat when he posted this. I'm copying down the ingredients to my shopping list RIGHT now!

I, being neither you nor Qara, will happily yoink this recipe myself. I just had a birthday and no cake, and tomorrow's payday.

Why is boiling water listed on the ingredients?

As a recommendation, avoid Dutch cocoa. Yes, it's easier to deal with, but it has a weird aftertaste.

EDIT: I should clarify: why specifically water instead of other liquids? You could go one of two routes - either make the cake even more soft and moist by using milk or cream, or you could intensify/augment the flavor with some other liquid (chocolate liqueur, fresh coffee).

Rick Healey wrote:Why is boiling water listed on the ingredients?

As a recommendation, avoid Dutch cocoa. Yes, it's easier to deal with, but it has a weird aftertaste.

EDIT: I should clarify: why specifically water instead of other liquids? You could go one of two routes - either make the cake even more soft and moist by using milk or cream, or you could intensify/augment the flavor with some other liquid (chocolate liqueur, fresh coffee).

Well, most of my family doesn't really like coffee, and this was made for us as kids, so no alcoholic stuff. As to the rest, the cake turns out very soft and moist already, probably in part due to all the sour cream, so I'm not sure how well it would turn out if you tried to make it more soft.

Though if you want to add coffee, you can just make some black coffee and throw that in there instead. I would be careful about how strong it was, though. Don't want it taking over the flavour.

"You know... for kids!"

I suppose my family is a bit different, as we were allowed rum cake when we were around 8 or 10 growing up. But still, I probably should differentiate between chocolate spirits and chocolate liqueur - I meant the latter.

For coffee use, I generally find that coffee and chocolate play quite well together. I would recommend a lighter roast, because we're already talking about adding to something that's going to bake for a decent amount of time at 350 degrees. (Also, because I generally prefer lighter roasts). You could also use espresso powder (approx 1 tablespoon, eyeballing the proportions of the recipe), but that actually gets into a debate that I run into with others who make pastries.

Also, curious - in lieu of cocoa powder, have you ever tried melting unsweetened chocolate and mixing it with the sour cream? I have a similar recipe, but I use the unsweetened/sour cream combo instead of cocoa powder (generally, 6 ounces of Sharffen-Berger 99% Pure). It does tend to make the cake denser (which may be why I reflexively go to add cream at the end instead of water), but I find it comes out so much more decadent.

Rick Healey wrote:"You know... for kids!"

I suppose my family is a bit different, as we were allowed rum cake when we were around 8 or 10 growing up. But still, I probably should differentiate between chocolate spirits and chocolate liqueur - I meant the latter.

For coffee use, I generally find that coffee and chocolate play quite well together. I would recommend a lighter roast, because we're already talking about adding to something that's going to bake for a decent amount of time at 350 degrees. (Also, because I generally prefer lighter roasts). You could also use espresso powder (approx 1 tablespoon, eyeballing the proportions of the recipe), but that actually gets into a debate that I run into with others who make pastries.

Also, curious - in lieu of cocoa powder, have you ever tried melting unsweetened chocolate and mixing it with the sour cream? I have a similar recipe, but I use the unsweetened/sour cream combo instead of cocoa powder (generally, 6 ounces of Sharffen-Berger 99% Pure). It does tend to make the cake denser (which may be why I reflexively go to add cream at the end instead of water), but I find it comes out so much more decadent.

I can see how that would require cream. Sounds great. I haven't tried doing that for a long time. As for the coffee bit, yeah, that sounds like it would work pretty well. I come from a tea family, so I don't have much on hand though.

Rick Healey wrote:"You know... for kids!"

I suppose my family is a bit different, as we were allowed rum cake when we were around 8 or 10 growing up. But still, I probably should differentiate between chocolate spirits and chocolate liqueur - I meant the latter.

For coffee use, I generally find that coffee and chocolate play quite well together. I would recommend a lighter roast, because we're already talking about adding to something that's going to bake for a decent amount of time at 350 degrees. (Also, because I generally prefer lighter roasts). You could also use espresso powder (approx 1 tablespoon, eyeballing the proportions of the recipe), but that actually gets into a debate that I run into with others who make pastries.

Also, curious - in lieu of cocoa powder, have you ever tried melting unsweetened chocolate and mixing it with the sour cream? I have a similar recipe, but I use the unsweetened/sour cream combo instead of cocoa powder (generally, 6 ounces of Sharffen-Berger 99% Pure). It does tend to make the cake denser (which may be why I reflexively go to add cream at the end instead of water), but I find it comes out so much more decadent.

Never done that with sour cream (this will be the first time I used that in a cake, I'm really only familiar with basic victoria sponge) but it sounds kind of delicious.

I just can't get to liking chocolate liqueur stuff though :/ Not a big fan of alcohol, though I'm a huge chocolholic, the two of them together just feels... yeah that doesn't work for me. Must be a taste thing.

Have either of you ever made a charlotte russe? I tries once. The fingers went all soggy and it collapsed

I made a spelling error - I meant to say chocolate liquor (basically, liquefied chocolate), not chocolate liqueur (alcoholic spirits with chocolate flavoring). Though both can work in this kind of cake without having to add egg yolks or the like.

I don't work with sour cream too much beyond chocolate cakes, but that's mostly because I don't know too many people who like coffee cake. I do, but I don't like making a cake just for myself. It's a bit overboard.

I had to look up "charlotte russe," as I hadn't heard that name for it before. Though it appears that it's either the same or very similar to a dish I am familiar with, ice-box pie. I don't really make them myself (really only the occasional chocolate cream pie), but I know the basics. The main trick for preventing things from getting too soggy would actually be to lightly toast the bread/ladyfingers before making it, to dry them out even further. You may also need to check the liquid content of the pudding/custard/mousse used in making it - especially if you're including fresh fruit as well (and definitely keep the fresh fruit from touching the starch directly).

That said, if you want to cheat a bit, turn some ladyfingers into powder, mix with some honey/simple syrup, and coat the remaining starch with this honey mixture and allow it to set in a freezer before adding the pudding/custard/mousse. The advantage is that you don't get a soggy mess, but the disadvantage is that it can result in the crust being too chewy.

There's sour cream in my chocolate chip crumb cake recipe.
Though I have replaced absolutely every ingredient in there with something else at one point or another, so it's not absolutely necessary; plain yoghurt is a particularly effective substitute. It, uh, also works with cottage cheese or random spreadable white cheese (don't ask). But yeah, recipes with sour cream. Yum.

There's sour cream in the recipe I use for blueberry cookies. They're delicious, though they come out very soft and by the next day they are positively soggy and will stick together, becoming virtually impossible to separate into the individual cookies. I also add food coloring because in the dream I had that inspired me to make them they were purple.

Qara-Xuan Zenith wrote:There's sour cream in my chocolate chip crumb cake recipe.
Though I have replaced absolutely every ingredient in there with something else at one point or another, so it's not absolutely necessary; plain yoghurt is a particularly effective substitute. It, uh, also works with cottage cheese or random spreadable white cheese (don't ask). But yeah, recipes with sour cream. Yum.

Greek yougurt can be substitutted for EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING I TELL YOU. (I like greek yougurt).

narrativedilettante wrote:There's sour cream in the recipe I use for blueberry cookies. They're delicious, though they come out very soft and by the next day they are positively soggy and will stick together, becoming virtually impossible to separate into the individual cookies. I also add food coloring because in the dream I had that inspired me to make them they were purple.

You are an awesome person. VERY Charlie and the Chocolate factory

Well, Sicon's cake is in the oven as we speak. It was... a very odd mix for me, since I'm really only used to all in ones, victoria sponges and, when I'm feeling really ambitious, Charlotte Russe's, but so far so good...

Okay final analysis: this cake is delicious

I would've left out the water, personally, and for the fondant covering I would've used regular double cream which I don't think all of you guys over there in the states get. I think American cake is just generally a bit different from ours, but this was well worth baking Thanks again, Sicon and Sicon's family!

Okay so this isn't actually technically a unique recipe or anything, because it's just a traditional victoria sponge, and the only real secret to that is to not be impatient and just follow the instructions (you'd be surprised how many don't do that, I mean, I'm not much of a traditionalist in the kitchen but dude, nothing beats hand whisking for a cake like this). But a while back (actually over a year ago now) I made this beauty:



So yeah, nothing special, ya just mix the batter, and then mix in food colouring in seperate bowls. I tried doing it with neat layers too, but... it doesn't look as cool. Progress images:

I just realized! This is a baking thread! I can't just post about my baking exploits on twitter, and forget about here!

SO... a few weeks ago, I went to a steak-and-cake thing (where this chef demonstrated how to prepare a steak, which we then devoured, then taught us how to decorate cupcakes, which... you get the picture).

There was a lovely array of decoration options , and, because I was afraid of going overboard and ending up with a monstrosity, I decided to make a very minimalist, Mr. A- and- the- Cthulhu- app- themed cupcake:
(and the purple sparkles are actually called "sparkles"!)

AND THEN a week ago, I made hamentashn! I showed Agora about them, but I don't think everyone else should be left out. They are triangular cookies, stuffed with filling-- the most traditional fillings are poppyseed or prune, but these days people get away with any kind of jam or what-have-you on the inside. For these ones, I made my own poppyseed filling rather than getting it pre-made for the first time, and while their triangular shape may leave something to be desired, I assure you that the taste is delicious:

1 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda

Set oven to 375 (or 350 for some ovens)
Mix together everything except chocolate chips and then add them in
Use half a tablespoon to make small balls out of the cookie dough and place it on a flat cookie sheet (don't grease it or put tinfoil on it)
Cook 7-9 minutes
Enjoy.