Perfectly sliced and served with a scoop of vanilla gelato

I had so much fun making this Chocolate Sour Cream Cake for my eldest daughter’s 12th birthday which we celebrated today as a family. Jana had specifically asked for a chocolate cake and we took this along to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Ottimo Italian Kitchen (www.ottimoitaliankitchen.com.au) where the eternally patient, pleasant and professional staff served it up with style after our delicious dinner. 

I baked the cake last night when the littlest ones were asleep and just before going to bed, I sandwiched together the two layers with a silky Chocolate Golden Syrup Icing and fresh strawberries. Doing this the night before the special occasion, allows the berry flavours to infuse throughout the middle of the cake. 

I pulled out my fondant and cake decorating supplies and moulded a cartoon-ish figurine of a smiling girl to represent my daughter. A handful of deep purple flowers, with a spattering of greenery along with a striped ribbon from Summers Floral, finished off the cake.

During my childhood and adolescent years, my mother would ask me what sort of a cake I would like for my birthday. I always see-sawed between two cakes. It was either her home made apple pie complete with hand kneaded sweet pastry, or a decadent, multi layered Black Forest Cherry Cake soaked with kirsch liqueur and studded with plump black tinned cherries. My cake preference expanded ever so slightly between the ages of 8 and 10 when I spotted a Peter’s Ice-Cream Birthday Cake in the frozen foods section of our local supermarket. Topped with sugared cream flowers, I considered this to be absolute luxury in the cake department and for a couple of years mum indulged me. Luckily I regained my gastronomic senses and returned to requesting and enjoying mum’s home made baked birthday treats. 

This cake has a satisfying chocolate flavour which makes it a hit with fans of all things chocolaty, but is neither over rich nor overly dense. Instead it has a moist, lightly aerated texture and is delicious eaten filled with Chocolate Golden Syrup Icing, or vanilla scented cream or even as a plain cake perfect for a school lunch box treat.

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

This recipe is taken from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook Feast, Food that Celebrates Life. I have made it numerous times and it remains my favourite chocolate cake. It can be whipped up in either a food processor or with a mixer (stand alone style like a KitchenAid or a handheld electric beater). I have tried both methods and each time the cakes turn put perfectly. The advantage of a FOOD PROCESSOR is that it is FASTER.

Ingredients
175 g unsalted butter
200 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150 ml sour cream
200 g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
40 g good quality cocoa (I use Cadbury Cocoa, readily available from supermarkets)

One hour before starting this cake, take all the cold items out of the fridge to bring them to room temperature. This allows all the ingredients to combine smoothly avoiding unpleasant lumps.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees on a conventional setting and grease and line two 20 cm cake tins. I use cake tins with removable bases which makes it easier to tip the cakes out onto a cake rack once cooked. It is VERY IMPORTANT to use the correct sized cake tins. Too large and your cakes will resemble a biscuit and burn. Too small and your mixture will overflow and remain raw in the middle.

USING A FOOD PROCESSOR – Put the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and sour cream in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Add all the other ingredients and blend again until there is a thick, smooth chocolate coloured batter in the bowl. You will need to stop the machine a couple of times to scrape down the mixture from the sides to ensure everything is well combined.

USING A MIXER – Cream the butter and sugar until pale and thick. Then add the vanilla and eggs and beat until combined. Add all the remaining ingredients, and start to beat the mixture on a low setting to prevent the flour and cocoa from flying up out of the bowl in a cloud of edible dust. Once the ingredients start to blend together, increase the speed and continue to beat until smooth, thick and blended. As per the food processor method, you will need to stop halfway through blending and scrape the mixture off the sides with a spatula. 

Divide the mixture evenly between the two cake tins. I use a food scale to measure the weight of each filled tin to ensure an accurate spread of batter. 

Place the tins into your oven and bake for 30 minutes. As ovens vary, I recommend you check at the 25 minute mark by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake. If it is clean and the cakes have come away from the sides of the tin, then they are ready. If not leave for another 5 minutes only – no longer than this. 

Cool in the tins for 10 minutes then turn out on a cake rack to cool completely before icing and decorating. 


Chocolate Golden Syrup Icing

Ingredients 
75 g unsalted butter
175 g dark chocolate with 70% cocoa butter content (I use Lindt)
300 g icing sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
125 m sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional extra: 
1 punnet ripe strawberries, washed, dried and thinly sliced. 

Melt the butter and chocolate, either in the microwave or in a bowl suspended over a pot of simmering water on the stove. TAKE CARE NOT TO LET THIS BURN!

Scrape this mixture into a large mixing bowl or food processor, add all the other ingredients and beat together until combined and silky smooth. 

Spread part of the icing onto one half of the cake, top with slivers of finely sliced strawberries layered in a circular pattern. Spread a little more icing on the other half of the cake and place this on top of the filled round. Use the remaining icing to cover the sides and top of the cake completely. I wanted to achieve an imperfect finish, and so with my final layer of icing, I used my stainless steel cake decorating spatula in a “swirling” motion to achieve the desired effect as pictured. 


Decorate the cake with either sugared flowers, fresh flowers, serve just with the icing or if you are feeling especially arty, turn your hand to moulding a decoration out of fondant. My daughter was chuffed to see the sugared version of herself perched on top of her birthday cake.