Chocolate Chip and Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Last month I purchased a tub of sour cream in order to bake Nigella Lawson's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake. But as got home and read again the recipe there were a few other ingredients that I didn't have on hand to make it as good as the recipe (and I was too lazy to find out the substitutes), so I skipped the baking part and just wallow myself in the numerous foodblog I followed.

Only today I noticed the poor tub of sour cream sitting nicely in the fridge. And I checked the expiry date which to be due in just one week. I fight myself to procrastinate and up I went to find a recipe that requires an additional ingredient, apart from the staple ingredients that I have on hand. The first source I looked up was my new baking book, Dorie Greenspan's From My Home to Yours.

The first recipe I laid my eyes upon was the perfect recipe for me to use ! Talk about coincidence. The recipe was Nutty, Chocolaty, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake. But I had none of the nuts and the spices needed on hand, so I played around with the recipe. So, the recipe shall be called Chocolate Chips and Sour Cream Bundt Cake. =p

Ingredients :

For the swirly

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/3 cup plump, moist raisins
• 2 1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of salt

For the cake

• 2 cups all-purpose plain flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 1 3/4 sugar
• Grated zest of 1 orange
• 226 gram unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tspn vanilla extract
• 1 cup (250 gram) sour cream

Method :

Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Butter a 10 inch Bundt pan and dust the interior with flour and tap out the excess.

To make the swirl : 

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to mix. Here I just put the chocolate chips and sugar.

To make the cake : 

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. In another large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and aromatic.
3. Add the butter and beat on medium speen for 4 minutes.
4. Add the egg one at a time, beating for 1 minutes after each egg goes in.
5. Beat in the vanilla.
6. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the sour cream.
7. Still on slow, add the dry ingredients and mix only until they dissapear into the batter.
8. Scoop about one third of the batter into the pan and evenly sprinkle on half of the swirl mixture, then spoon in the rest of the batter.
9. Make a shallow indentation with the back of the spoon in the center of the ring of batter and fill it with the remaining swirl mixture, then cover the mixture lightly with the batter on the sides of the indentation. The batter probably won't cover the mixture completely.
10. Bake for 60 - 65 minutes or until thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean.
11. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the cake rest for 10 minutes before unmoulding it.
12. Dust the cake with icing sugar, if desired.

Due to the zest of oranges added into the batter I could hardly taste the sour cream at all. And it's a good thing because while I was adding the cream into the batter it had an off smell to it and I dread to eat the cake later. 

But surprisingly, the cake taste really good. Although I don't think it was great, presentation wise, but I just have to make do with it. 

There you go folks. Happy trying !

P/S : My dad commented that the cake was extremely sweet. So maybe next time I'll reduce the sugar to 1 cup only.