Sourdough chocolate cake

I've been considering launching into sourdoughs for some time, but have been nervous about it since my last attempt was such a disaster. This time, instead of trying to grow the starter myself, I "cheated" and bought a starter from King Arthur Flour. (Have I told you yet how much I love KAF?) This weekend I decided to try their recipes for Chocolate Sourdough Cake and Rustic Sourdough.

First up, Chocolate Sourdough Cake:

* 1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
* 1 cup milk (whole milk or 2% preferred) or evaporated milk
* 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
* 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
* 1 cup vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 3/4 cup natural cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
* 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
* 2 large eggs

1) Combine the "fed" starter, milk, and flour in a large mixing bowl. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours. It won't necessarily bubble, but it may have expanded a bit.


2) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan. In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla, salt, baking soda, cocoa. and espresso powder. The mixture will be grainy.


3) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then gently combine the chocolate mixture with the starter-flour-milk mixture, stirring till smooth. This will be a gloppy process at first, but the batter will smooth out as you continue to beat gently.




4) Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for 30 to 40 minutes, until it springs back when lightly pressed in the center, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven, and set it on a rack to cool while you make the icing.



Icing
(I used the chocolate icing recipe from my America's Test Kitchen cookbook, rather than the coffee-flavored icing from the KAF recipe.)

2.5 sticks butter, softened
8 oz bitterweet chocolate
2 cups confectioners sugar
2 T cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla

1. Melt the chocolate in .5 stick of butter, stirring often to avoid burning.
2. Beat the remaining 2 sticks butter until smooth (about 30-60 seconds on medium-high).


3. Add the confectioners sugar and beat until smooth (about 2-5 minutes on medium-low).


4. Beat in the chocolate, cocoa, and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 4-8 minutes on medium-high).


5. Frost your cake! (It turned out that I didn't bake my cake completely - d'oh! - so I had to cut out the under-cooked middle. But the edge pieces were all fine, so I just frosted the individual pieces. Tricky, huh?!?)