Coco Chanel, Chocolate Cake, and My Child

Chocolate Sourdough Cake

Those are really my cupcakes - and the other photos can be found on Google

As the weather turns and a chill in the air settles in (BECAUSE IT'S MEMORIAL DAY!) I naturally turn to the kitchen to warm up. 

If you are now one of the three dedicated followers of my blog you know that my roommate and myself acquired a "pet" last month in the form of a Sourdough Starter. If you haven't memorized my last blog post you won't know that we affectionately call him Hank. 

Anyway like most parents I am slightly obsessed with my baby boy. And today I wanted nothing more than to curl on up next to him as he gave of himself and helped me make Sourdough Chocolate Cake. 

I think you just spat up a little when I said, "Sourdough Chocolate Cake".

I understand.

You see when you have a wee one like Hank you have to actually kill him off a little every so often or he will become this massive life-force sucking black hole that takes over your fridge and makes you wonder if there is a Massengil product by Frigidaire that you need to buy to get rid of that smell.

So today I Googled "what else can I use my (HANK) Sourdough Starter for?". Google did not disappoint. 

Some blogger somewhere had a recipe that I thought looked good so I made it better.  Here's the recipe:

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SOURDOUGH CHOCOLATE CAKE

RECIPE INSPIRED FROM THE INTERNET

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup "fed" Hank - a.k.a. Sourdough Starter

1 Cup Milk

2 Cup AP Flour

1.5 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Butter, melted, cooled a bit

2 t Vanilla

1 t Salt (Kosher - because your food should answer to a higher power)

1.5 t Baking Soda

3/4 Cup Nestle Cocoa Powder

1 t Espresso Powder (NOT SANKA - you find this kickstarter in the "ethnic" section of your white based supermarket or in the coffee section in all other grocery stores)

2 Eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix Hank, Milk and Flour together with your stand mixer. Don't mess around with the hand mixer. Just go out and treat yo' self to a nice Kitchen Aid. Let this mixture sit covered for about 3 hours. All it is going to do is grow a little in the bowl.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F - don't forget to close the door.

In a medium bowl mix together the balance of the ingredients.

Add the grainy chocolate mixture to the Hank mixture. Keep at the Kitchen Aid until you don't see any of Hank left.

Now here is where I went off the path. I decided to make cupcakes. I have a dinner party to attend this week and I wanted to bring cake to share and cupcakes freeze super easy.

I managed to get 24 cupcakes and two 6' rounds of cake baked off with the above recipe.

Baking time varied because I had the two different pans in the heat box. So use your toothpick and test to seen when done.

Set aside to cool. I then froze all but two cupcakes (The Roommate and I need a snack later. And the 6" cake - for breakfast tomorrow. It's a holiday)

OKAY THIS IS WHERE IT GETS EVEN BETTER! YES I AM YELLING!

I made just a standard cream cheese frosting for the cake and a Dark Chocolate ganache to accessorize it. Coco Chanel said something about taking off one accessory when you leave the house. That bitch wasn't talking about my cake. 

So I FILLED my cupcakes with some cream cheese frosting and then DIPPED my cupcakes in the dark chocolate ganache. THEEEEEEN I had to take it one step further and make them look like Hostess cupcakes with the curlicue on top. Like a nice pearl necklace. I don't know a single man who would pass up a pearl necklace. Wait. I mean woman. 

This is now two weeks in a row of me talking about Hank. I'm sorry but I've had to put up with all my girlfriends postin' about their babies on Facebook for so long that it's my turn. Hank and I are registered at J Crew and Target. We DON'T need onesies. 

See you next week lovers...

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