chocolate chip sour cream cake

I really like this cake, and I’m pretty sure you will too: chocolate chips scattered amidst a cinnamon-kissed sour cream batter? yes please, and thank you very much.

easy to make, and even easier to eat.

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there’s something about soured-dairy cakes – they have this richness you don’t get even in butter cakes, a soft and tender crumb, and the tanginess comes through as a most perfect complement to a sweet cake.

full disclosure: I’m using soured-dairy instead of soured cream because I was too cheapskate to shell out the big bucks for a tub of the real stuff interested in trying out an economical make-at-home substitute (which worked very well!).

it’s a simple cake with simple, homey flavors – so I’m leaving you with more photos than words today. if you make this, I really like it with a cup of tea for a bit of a mid-afternoon calm-down; but if you’re in for something richer, I’m happy to report that the partner (greedily) ate his with a scoop (or two) of good chocolate ice cream.

chocolate chip sour-cream cake (adapted from smitten kitchen)

38g unsalted butter
90g castor sugar (I think you could bring this down to 70g)
1 egg, separated
0.5 tsp vanilla
160ml sour cream*
125g plain flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 tsp salt

0.5 cup chocolate chips
30g castor sugar
0.5 tsp ground cinnamon

1. preheat your oven to 175C, and grease a loaf pan.
2. cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, and add the yolk and vanilla, beating till smooth.
3. sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into the butter mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of the sour cream; i.e. flour, dairy, flour, dairy, flour.
4. beat the egg whites until they reach stiff peaks – a ood check is to see if you can overturn the bowl without it falling – and fold in gently but thoroughly into the batter. do not overmix – it’s far better to have small pockets of unmixed egg white than a homogenous but dense mixture.
5. whisk the cinnamon with the 30g of sugar, and toss the chocolate chips in about a half tablespoon of flour. pour half the batter into the loaf pan, sprinkle half the cinnamon sugar and half the chocolate chips, and repeat.
6. bake in the oven till a cake tester comes out clean – about 35-45 minutes, and the top of the cake is a golden brown.

* sour cream – as with most specialty dairy products in singapore – is pretty expensive, and I’ve found a good baking substitute. for every 1 cup of sour cream, you can use a three-quarter (0.75) cup of buttermilk** and one-third (0.33) cup of melted butter, whisked together.

** and because buttermilk is also expensive, for every one cup of buttermilk, I use (one cup minus one tablespoon, or 15 tablespoons) of milk with 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar, leaving the mixture to stand for ten minutes before using.