Vinegar Cake

This old-fashioned chocolate cake uses a trick from your great-grandmother’s kitchen: baking soda mixed with vinegar as the leavening agent. The fizzing reaction creates carbon dioxide that lifts the batter, giving the cake a tender, airy crumb without any baking powder.

Sour milk and unsweetened chocolate make the base rich and tangy. The acidity from both the vinegar and the sour milk works with the baking soda to create a stronger rise than baking soda alone, and that tang balances the sweetness in a way that makes the chocolate flavor taste deeper and more complex.

Creaming the butter and sugar until truly light and fluffy is where the texture starts. Don’t rush it. Three to four minutes of beating traps air pockets that expand during baking.

Kitchen Tips

• No sour milk on hand? Add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to regular milk and let it sit for 5 minutes. It’ll curdle slightly and work just the same.
• Mix the baking soda and vinegar together right before adding to the batter. The reaction starts immediately and you want that lift going into the oven, not fizzing out on the counter.
• Alternate adding flour and sour milk in small batches. Dumping it all in at once overworks the gluten and makes the cake tough.

Variations

• Red velvet style: Reduce the chocolate to one ounce and add red food coloring for a vinegar-leavened red velvet cake that’s truer to the original recipe than most modern versions.
• Spiced chocolate: Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne to the flour for a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired layer cake.