Baking My Way Through Baking Illustrated, Recipe #3: Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake
Of the 35 cake recipes you will find in Baking Illustrated (not including variations), roughly a third are chocolate cakes.
Varying in the intensity of chocolate flavor, richness, texture, presentation and ease of preparation, they include: Chocolate Sheet Cake, Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake, German Chocolate Cake, Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake, Devil's Food Cake, Génoise, Black Forest Cake, Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate-Hazelnut Cake, Fallen Chocolate Cakes, and Hot-Fudge Pudding Cake.
Deciding what kind of cake to make was difficult, but I knew I wanted a moist, fudgy cake that was easy to prepare. When I read the description for Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake I was sold:
"Sour cream gives this cake its smooth, rich chocolate taste with a dense yet melting texture, almost like fudge. An equally intense chocolate icing stands up to the rich cake."
...but what if this cake is baked in Estes Park, Colorado... at 7,500 feet?
Now I had a harder problem to tackle: baking a successful chocolate cake at high altitude.
After consulting the three pages (18-20) in Baking Illustrated devoted to high-altitude baking, as well a sour cream-based chocolate cake recipe in High Altitude Baking from Colorado State University, I settled on some modifications to make for my high-altitude version of Baking Illustrated's Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake. They were:
- adding 3 Tbsp. flour
- adding 1/4 cup sour cream
- subtracting 1/4 cup sugar
- adding 1 egg
- subtracting 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- adding 25 degrees to the original baking temperature
- using a 9x13 baking pan instead of two circular 9-inch pans
While researching how to bake cakes at high altitude, I saw that most references suggest to make a recipe first before changing the amount of certain ingredients one by one. I didn't have the patience, money, or appetite to eat chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner, so I decided to implement all of the above and crossed my fingers.
Here is what my batter looked like before the pan went into the oven:
While baking, the cake puffed up quite a bit and the top cracked, but as it cooled, it sank back down to the right height. I think this is due to having too high of an oven temperature, but I didn't notice any change in the taste or texture of the cake in the middle, so I'm fine with this. When it came out:
I decided to try two different toppings: a cream cheese frosting and the chocolate butter icing the book paired with this cake. The finished presentation:
The verdict on taste? Exactly the way I had hoped. After 15 minutes of cooling after being taken out of the oven, it was warm, gooey enough to melt in your mouth, yet retained the texture of a soft and moist cake. It also had an intense chocolate flavor that wasn't too sweet. I preferred the cake with the chocolate butter icing, but my friends liked the cream cheese frosting better.
The next day, after spending a night in the refrigerator, the cake tasted exactly like a moist, chewy brownie. However, after spending 15 seconds in the microwave, it became an awesome fudgey cake again. Looks like you can have your cake and eat your brownie too!
The recipe for this cake at 7,500 feet is as follows:
Sour Cream Fudge Layer Cake (from Baking Illustrated, pg. 362) - High altitude version for 7,500 ft. - SERVES 12
SOUR CREAM FUDGE CAKE
1 ¼ cups + 3 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting pans
1 cup nonalkalized cocoa, such as Hershey’s
2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder
1 cup boiling water
¾ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 ½ cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
CHOCOLATE BUTTER ICING
9 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1. FOR THE CAKE: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 375 degrees. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans and cover the pan bottoms with rounds of parchment paper or waxed paper. Grease the parchment paper and dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Mix the cocoa and instant espresso powder in a small bowl; add the boiling water and mix until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla.
3. Beat the butter in the bowl of a standing mixer at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar; beat until the mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
4. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. With the mixer at the lowest speed, add about a third of the dry ingredients to the batter, followed immediately by about a third of the cocoa mixture; mix until the ingredients are almost incorporated into the batter. Repeat the process twice more. When the batter appears blended, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Return the mixer to low speed; beat until the batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the pans. With a rubber spatula, spread the batter to the pan sides and smooth the tops. Bake the cakes until they feel firm in the center when lightly pressed and a toothpick or thin skewer comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pans to wire racks; cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the perimeter of each pan, invert the cakes on to the racks, and peel off the paper liners. Reinvert the cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting.
6. FOR THE ICING: Melt the chocolate and butter in a medium bowl set over a pan of almost simmering water. Stir in the corn syrup. Set the bowl of chocolate mixture over a larger bowl of ice water, stirring occasionally, until the icing is just thick enough to spread.
