Chocolate Sour Cream Cake with Peppermint Frosting
This is one seriously good cake.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. Mine was spent with our immediate family, decluttering the basement with my hubby (doesn’t everyone do that on Christmas Day? haha!), and cooking a simple Christmas dinner.
I made this recipe the day before Christmas, so I’m happy to finally be able to post about it, because it was good.
I have to give a shout-out to my friend Kelsey ( @40s.life.with.kelsey on Instagram) for this cake’s inspiration. She made a Canadian version of this recipe a few years ago and I’ve always remembered it because it looked so amazingly tempting. I was thrilled to include it as an option for this Wartime Peppermint Party and finally get the chance to make it!
I found a similar, American version of the cake in an Iowa newspaper which you can see below:
Besides having to do a lot of sifting, this recipe is pretty basic and was easy to follow. I opted to use cocoa powder which is 3 Tbsp. cocoa + 1 Tbsp. fat (like butter) for every square of baking chocolate. I didn’t have to make any other modifications. It was wonderfully chocolatey.
I used a round cake tin instead of two 9-inch cake pans which turned out really well. I also did not make the frosting, because I find Seven Minute Frosting super annoying. I instead made a buttercream and followed the frosting recipe for adding peppermint and a touch of red dye. Then I took inspiration from Kelsey’s cake and sprinkled crushed peppermint candies over the top instead of chocolate shavings.
YUM.
The cake was soft and tender with a wonderful chocolate/peppermint balance. If you’re going to make any chocolate peppermint cake, I would make this one. It’s a new favorite for me!
