Abby's Fabulous Chocolate Cake
Submitted by goldi
Abby’s Chocolate Cake: a classic two-layer chocolate cake with sour cream for tang, frosted in cooked fluffy white seven-minute frosting. Vintage American birthday-cake territory.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
50 minCOOK
40 minREADY
90 minAbby’s Chocolate Cake lands in the same vintage-American baking tradition as Aunt Bee’s recipe box. Two layers of moist chocolate cake (made with melted unsweetened chocolate and tangy sour cream) get sandwiched and covered in cooked fluffy white frosting that holds high peaks for days.
The double-boiler chocolate is the right starting move. Melting unsweetened chocolate with butter and water over gentle heat preserves the chocolate’s full flavor, where direct heat scorches and dulls it. Patience here pays off in the final taste.
Sour cream is the secret behind the moist crumb. The acidity tenderizes gluten and reacts with baking soda for lift. The full cup is generous and gives this cake its characteristic richness.
Cake flour, not all-purpose. The lower protein keeps the crumb tender, which matters in a cake this rich. All-purpose works in a pinch but produces a slightly tougher result.
The thin batter is normal. Do not panic and add more flour. The water and sour cream make for a pourable consistency that bakes into a tender, even-textured cake.
The seven-minute frosting is a marshmallow-fluff cousin, cooked over a double boiler with constant beating. It is glossy, white, and holds bold swirls. Pair it with chocolate cake and you have a textbook contrast.
Pro Tips
- Cool the chocolate mixture fully before mixing into the eggs and sour cream. Hot chocolate scrambles the eggs and curdles the sour cream.
- Use a stand or hand mixer for the frosting. Hand-beating is technically possible but exhausting. Seven minutes of constant motion is no joke.
- Frost the cake the day you serve it. Seven-minute frosting weeps and softens after 24 hours.
- For deep swirls, hold the spatula at a 45-degree angle and pull it through the frosting in one motion, like meringue on a lemon pie.
Variations
- Add a teaspoon of espresso powder to the chocolate mixture for a deeper, more grown-up chocolate flavor.
- Skip the white frosting and use chocolate ganache for a darker, less sweet finish.
- Drizzle the optional chocolate-and-butter glaze over the white frosting for visual contrast.
Ingredients
Directions
Combine chocolate, butter and water in top of double boiler.
Heat chocolate mixture over simmering water until chocolate and butter melt.
Remove from heat. Cool. Sift flour, baking soda and salt into large bowl.
Beat eggs with sour cream until blended in medium-size bowl.
Beat in sugar and vanilla. Stir in cooled chocolate mixture.
Beat into flour mixture, half at a time, just until smooth.
Batter will be thin. Pour evenly into 2 greased and floured 8 inch cake pans.
Bake at 350℉ (180℃) for 40 minutes or until center springs back when lightly pressed with finger tip.
Cool in pans on wire racks.
Loosen edges with knife and turn out onto racks.
Stack cakes, frosting between layers, using ¼ of frosting.
Frost top and sides with remaining frosting, making deep swirls w/spatula.
If chocolate drizzle is desired, melt 1 square chocolate with 1 tablespoon butter in cup set in hot water.
Stir until smooth. Drizzle over top of cake, letting mixture drip down sides.
Fluffy White Frosting: Combine egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, salt and water in top of large double boiler.
Beat until blended. Place top over simmering water.
Cook, beating constantly with electric or rotary beater, about 7 minutes or until mixture stands in firm peaks.
Remove from water. Stir in vanilla.
Comments
This is the exact birthday cake recipe that my family has been baking for 60 years. My grandma found it in a magazine :)