mulberryshoots

For the past few days, it’s been a heat wave here in Massachusetts similar to the Eastern seaboard and most of the Mid-West. I haven’t wanted to turn on the oven but today, I thought it might be nice to bake a small chocolate sour cream cake. I don’t recall making chocolate cakes without sour cream because it gives the crumb so much richness and moisture. You don’t need many ingredients and this is the kind of cake that you can make on the spur of the moment with what you have in the pantry.

I used a recipe among the numerous ones on the internet, mostly because it seemed simpler and less contentious than many with comments too numerous to mention. I also like to bake the cake not in a metal pan, but in a buttered fluted white porcelain casserole pan, one of my favorites because of its size and graceful appearance. Here’s the recipe I followed, halving one that was online:

1/2 cup Hershey’s cocoa

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 1/4 cup turbinado sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sour cream

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, testing doneness with a toothpick

Steps; 1) Melt butter and stir with sugar, vanilla and eggs; 2) Loosely measure flour, add baking soda and powder, salt and stir into creamed mixture. 3) Boil water, measure out half a cup and add cocoa, mixing with a fork until melted and smooth. 4) Add chocolate mixture to batter; gently mix together and 5) add 1/2 cup of sour cream, folding it in without overmixing. 6) butter pan, fill it with batter and bake in oven until toothpick comes out clean. Cool.

I also made a scrumptious topping that is a combo of chocolate ganache and cream cheese because that’s what I had on hand: a half bag of Toll House semi-sweet chips; combined with half cup of heavy cream heated to almost boiling. Stir until melted and add about a third stick of Philadelphia cream cheese, stirring until smooth. I chilled it in the freezer for about 15 minutes and then added this “frosting” to the cooled cake.

Yum!