Chocolate Sourdough Discard Cake
Need a delicious (easy) way to use up sourdough discard?
This Chocolate Sourdough Discard layer cake uses 250g (about 1 cup) of discard -and makes one AMAZING layer cake!
This post (Vanilla Sourdough Discard Cake) details my years of waiting before finally getting brave enough to begin dabbling in the world of sourdough, lol. A friend gifted me some sourdough starter - and it’s been an adventure ever since! 😉 And in many many months since receiving my starter I’ve yet to run out of sourdough discard. I hate throwing it away, so the volume sometimes gets a little overwhelming before I catch back up!!
More details in the above post, but once I read online that sourdough discard can function similarly to buttermilk - THEN I knew I had a great place to funnel all that extra sourdough discard!
I worked out a vanilla sourdough discard cake fairly quickly - only took a few minor tweaks. Then I turned my attention to a chocolate layer cake recipe. And oh man. Working out a vanilla cake recipe was so easy. Chocolate though - chocolate turned out to be a bit more challenging.
Challenge 1 - texture.
First - the texture gave me fits my first couple tries. I’ve found it somehow more difficult to keep chocolate cakes from getting dry. :/ And man. Dry chocolate cakes aren’t good. They suck all the moisture out of your mouth, and decorating them is a nightmare because they crack and crumble. I ended up doing some tweaking with the discard amount, and then replacing about half of the butter with oil. This kept the rich butter flavor, but also resulted in a more moist, cohesive cake!
Challenge 2 - flavor.
The challenge here was getting that ‘sourdough’ tang into the cake - because chocolate is a much stronger flavor compared to vanilla. And sourdough’s not a super strong flavor competitor when you’re trying to balance it with chocolate. When I tried adding more than 250g of sourdough discard, I ended up with a cake that was pretty dry, crumbly, and broke easily. Annoying. Once I backed the amount back down and cut it with more oil and milk, the texture came back to a rich moist layer cake.
Will it satisfy the craziest of sourdough addicts? Maybe (I hope so?). The sourdough flavor to the cake layers is probably a 1 or 2 out of 10 - maybe up to a 3 or 4 if your discard has had a lot of time to ferment and has a stronger flavor.
That said though - it does have a sourdough tang that goes SO well with the rich chocolate flavor, and it’s ABSOLUTELY a recipe that I love now! It’s replaced my prior standby chocolate cake recipe - and it’s really been the workhorse of keeping my sourdough discard in check the last 2 months!
Like I said in my other post - I’m a sprinkle addict with no interest in quitting, so more sprinkles went on to this one. 😉 Nothing too crazy though; I wanted the cake to be the star of the pictures 😉
The cake in the videos was decorated with chocolate buttercream because I was trying a new frosting technique - still a work in progress - but I actually prefer my favorite Chocolate Cream Cheese buttercream recipe.
Going to cover a quick couple of questions, then on to the recipe!
“Do I need a full cup of sourdough discard? That’s kind of a lot.”
That’s what I’ve used in all my trial runs so far – so obviously I’d recommend it. If you don’t have that much discard on hand though, just use what you have! Substitute buttermilk for the remaining amount to make 1 cup.
“How strong is the sourdough taste?"
With regular sourdough bread being a 10/10, I'd give the strength of the sourdough flavor in the cake layers maybe a 1- to 4/10. It kind of depends on how long your discard has had to ferment as well. The cake I made with the 2-week-old discard in my fridge had a stronger sourdough flavor compared with the 3-day-old discard. It's there, but not strong enough that the cake tastes like a sourdough loaf. (My husband's a much bigger fan of sourdough than I am, so for me - that's perfect.)
“Can I use active starter?”
Technically - yes. There's a trade-off though. The sourdough flavor might suffer a bit. I did one trial run with starter that I’d fed the day before and then put into the fridge, so it was still fairly bubbly. It didn't mess with the texture of the cake; it still baked the same way - but the sourdough tang didn't seem as strong to me. Options!
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Chocolate Sourdough Discard Cake
Equipment
- 10 inch cardboard cake circle (8- or 10-inch, or a flat plate)
- Cake leveler or serrated knife (if needed; to level cake layers)
Ingredients
Chocolate Sourdough Discard Cake
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 2 ½ cups brown sugar (granulated sugar works as well; I liked brown sugar a bit better)
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
- ½ cup softened butter
- ¾ cup oil (I used vegetable oil)
- 4 eggs
- 250 g about 1 cup sourdough discard
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese (one package; softened)
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks; softened)
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
- 1-2 Tablespoons milk (if needed to reach a spreadable consistency)
Sprinkle mix of your choice (optional; I used Wilton gold sanding sugar)
Instructions
Instructions
Chocolate Sourdough Discard Cake layers
- Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180C) or 325 F (160C) for a convection oven. Grease 3 8-inch cake pans with baker's floured spray (or line with silicone or parchment rounds).
- Mix together all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in a stand mixer with a paddle until fully combined.
- Mix chunks of room-temperature butter slowly into the dry mix, on a low speed. Continue to mix until no large chunks of butter remain, and the mixture becomes crumbly. Add oil and mix until well combined.
- Pour in eggs and mix on low until just combined (the mixture will be thick at this stage; this is normal). Whisk together sourdough discard, milk, and vanilla until well-combined. Add the sourdough discard mixture in 2 parts, mixing until combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, then beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.
- Divide batter evenly between the prepared cake pans. (I find a kitchen scale helpful for this part, and had about 650g in each pan; this guarantees your layers will bake to be the same height.)
- Bake for 32-37 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean). Allow cake layers to cool for 10-15 minutes on a wire cooling rack before removing from pans – it helps to run an offset spatula or knife around the perimeter of the pan first. Cool completely before frosting. Set in the fridge or freezer to accelerate the cooling process if desired.
- This is a great time to make your frosting!
Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with flavoring until frosting reaches desired consistency. Add vanilla and salt/milk if needed and beat until well combined.
Assembly
- If needed, once cake layers are cooled, level them (These generally bake pretty flat and I don’t trim much from the tops). This can be done with a cake leveler or a large serrated knife and a ruler.
- Place a smear of frosting on your cake circle (to keep the cake from sliding while you decorate it) and center your first cake layer in the center of the circle.
- Spread the first layer with frosting. Add your next cake layer on top, and repeat the process with your remaining cake layers.
- Now you're ready to frost - I’ve started using a cake ring at this stage - more in this video or this post. Otherwise - if using the traditional method you’re ready to crumb-coat. If you're unfamiliar with crumb-coating, it's just what it sounds like – spreading a thin layer of frosting over the entire outside of the cake to keep crumbs out of your final layer.
- Once your crumb coat has set (this takes about 5-10 minutes in the fridge), add your final layer of frosting and smooth. (See this post for help if needed.)
Decorating
- The smoothing motion around the sides will probably result in a small ‘lip’ or ‘ridge’ of frosting at the top – this is a good thing. ;) Wipe off the offset spatula, and use it to pull in that ‘lip,’ keeping the spatula even with the top of the cake. Work your way around the cake until the top edge is smooth. Smooth-ish. Whatever. ;)
- Feel free to decorate however you'd like - sprinkles and frosting swirls like I did, or berries or even edible flowers ;) Annnd you’re done! Cut in and enjoy! Congrats on your killer sourdough discard cake!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this chocolate sourdough discard cake?
Please leave a comment and let me know how it went for you! 🙂
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