Dairy Free Sourdough Chocolate Cake - Yummy!

When you think of sourdough, you normally think of bread -- but chocolate cake? Here is a modification of a recipe from the King Arthur Baking website to make a dairy free chocolate cake. This lucious cake has a rich chocolate flavor that shows no overt evidence of its sourdough origin. Along with the demonstration of making the cake, the video includes a discussion of several of the ingredients. The original recipe for this great cake is on the King Arthur Baking site at www.kingarthurbaking.com/reci....
The Sourdough Simpleton is designed for the newcomer to the world of Sourdough baking. I am a novice, myself, and am writing this from a perspective that I found hard to find as I navigated the straits of sourdough, encountering terms and techniques along the way that defied a simple explanation. The videos on KZbin are supported by a website, www.sourdoughsimpleton.com, and a Facebook Group, bit.ly/FBSourdough.

[@GreatGrannyFreeBird]

that looks so good. I never thought about cake but this is another wonderful use for all my sourdough starter.

[@SourdoughSimpleton]

I just made this cake again, covered with a dark chocolate frosting, sinful!

[@UrbanSikeborg]

Thanks. The vegetable oils - I used a combination of mild rhapeseed and sunflower oils - came through quite strongly in the finished cake. I made a second test using melted unrefined coconut oil, and that tasted very nice. The combination of coconut and cocoa is a very good one. To give the cake a more adult taste, add a splash of rhum, cognac or whisky. (I did that the third time.) The recipe can be halfed, with the cake baked thinner, in a smaller pan. The cake can be kept in the freezer. Since the sourdough discard itself will have a pH of around 4, I don't think it matters in this particular recipe whether you use Dutch-processed cocoa or not; the acidity of the starter is enough to activate the baking soda. Baking powder (which is basically baking soda combined with an equal amount of starch to make it activate by the oven heat) works fine in this recipe as well, but then use the double amount. In an old, really sour discard, the gluten net will have been destroyed by the acids, and that's a plus when making a cake. A fresh starter could create a more chewey than tender cake if there are still a lot of gluten strings in it. Just a thought.

[@SourdoughSimpleton]

Thanks for the comments. I used plain canola oil, which sits in the background and does not add any real flavor. Wife is not a fan of coconut in any form, so that would likely not go well here! Agree with adding some spirits to make it more "adult"! Would try using Dutch process cocoa, though the cake is very chocolaty without the extra zing of the Dutched product. Glad you enjoy the recipe, and hope you check out the others on the channel, and subscribe if you've not already!