I’m so excited to share this new scratch Chocolate Sour Cream Cake recipe with you!
You may have tried a couple of our other treasured chocolate cake recipes including our scratch Classic Chocolate Cake , Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, and our homemade Devil’s Food Cake, but let me assure you that there is always room for another fantastic recipe- especially when chocolate is involved!
While we still love our other homemade chocolate recipes, this new Chocolate Sour Cream Cake is ultra moist, flavorful, and has a wonderfully soft texture.
My favorite chocolate doctored cake mix recipe is a Chocolate Sour Cream Cake, and I’ve wanted to make a scratch version of this recipe for the longest time.
We also receive requests often about how to turn our popular scratch White Almond Sour Cream Cake Recipe into a chocolate cake.
After lots of trial and error, I’m happy to say that we’ve found THE ONE!
How Does this Chocolate Sour Cream Cake Compare to our Classic Recipe?
This Chocolate Sour Cream Cake is similar to our scratch classic chocolate cake in some ways, as they both have the same amount of cocoa and coffee, giving it a decadent chocolate flavor, but the sour cream also adds a softness that we were happily surprised by.
We thought that this sour cream version of chocolate cake would be slightly more dense than our other chocolate recipe but the opposite is true. It truly melts in your mouth.
Versatility of the Recipe
This recipe works perfectly for chocolate sour cream cupcakes as well! In addition, despite the soft texture of the cake, it holds up well to fondant also. In other words, it is the perfect chocolate cake ;0)
Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing
Sometimes our reverse creaming method cake recipes have a slightly denser texture that makes them better for layer cakes but not ideal for cupcakes.
However, in this case, we found this recipe to be fantastic for cupcakes as well. Love the versatility of this cake!
While you can make this recipe using the traditional method of mixing, we tried the cake both ways and the reverse creaming method for this recipe was the clear winner.
It’s amazing how two cakes that contain the same ingredients can turn out so differently just based on the order and mixing technique of ingredients!
All of the steps are fully explained in our recipe below, but if you would like more information on the Reverse Creaming of Method of mixing, hop over to this post for additional details and a video: The Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.
Our Chocolate Sour Cream recipe makes a bit more batter than usual…closer to 9 1/2 or 10 cups. This is perfect for three 9 inch cake layers, but if you’d like you can also make three 8 inch layers and just pour a few additional cupcakes to sample.
At my house, extra cupcakes for sampling is always reason to celebrate ;0)
What Frostings Pair well with Chocolate Sour Cream Cake?
There are so many frosting and filling recipes that would be amazing with this Chocolate Sour Cream Cake recipe. Here are a few favorite options:
I love them all! Today we decided to pair our chocolate sour cream cake with a fairly new addition to our Recipes section for Seven Minute Frosting.
Seven Minute Frosting
For this recipe, we used a delicious Seven Minute Frosting which is delightfully airy and not overly sweet.
This luscious cloud-like frosting is light, yet holds stiff peaks very well, making it simpler to frost and pipe with. We used this same Seven Minute Frosting recipe in our homemade S’mores Cake!
The marshmallowy flavor works perfectly with this recipe! It pipes great too. We hope that you enjoy it!
We hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as we have! It’s hard to pick a favorite when it comes to the scratch chocolate cakes in our Recipes section, but this definitely gives the others a run for their money.
We think you’re going to love it!
Chocolate Sour Cream Cake- Scratch Recipe
This moist, decadent Chocolate Sour Cream Cake is the perfect scratch chocolate layer cake!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 2 3/4 cups (322g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (82g) unsweetened cocoa
- 2 teaspoons (10g) Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (2g) Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (2g) Salt
- 1 stick + 5 Tablespoons (185g) Unsalted Butter (I sliced the butter into 1 inch pieces onto waxed paper leaving on the countertop for 8 to 10 minutes. It will still be quite cool when adding to the dry ingredients. You should be able to make a fingerprint when you press the butter. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate for a few minutes.)
- 1 cup (242g) Sour Cream
- 1 c. (220g) Milk
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla
- 1 cup (220g) Hot Coffee
For the Seven Minute Frosting
- 2/3 cup (150g) water
- 2 cup (400g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (2g) Cream of Tartar or 2 Tablespoon (30g) white corn syrup
- 4 egg whites
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 9 inch pans. This recipe uses the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.
- Add dry ingredients to the bowl of your mixer and mix for one minute to blend (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt)
- Add butter a few slices at a time and mix until it reaches a crumbly, sandy texture. Be careful not to over-mix beyond "sandy" consistency.
- In another bowl, combine sour cream, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Using a fork, mix together. This is all of your wet ingredients except for the coffee, it will be added to the batter later.
- Set a timer for 1 ½ minutes and SLOWLY add half of your egg mixture to your butter/flour mixture while mixing. Start mixer on low speed then increase to medium for the remainder of the 1 ½ minutes. Do Not Mix Above Medium Speed.
- Stop mixer, scrape the sides and bottom of bowl, and add half of the remaining egg mixture. Mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.
- Stop mixer, scrape down the sides if necessary, and add the last of the egg mixture. Mix for 20 more seconds on medium speed.
- Slowly add HOT coffee and mixing for 30 seconds to blend. Batter will be runny but that is okay!
This recipe makes about 9 1/2 cups of batter. Pour into 3 prepared 9" pans and bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
For the Frosting
- Make sure the mixing bowl and beaters are clean without a trace of grease. Any grease will keep the egg whites from increasing to full volume.
- Use a separate bowl to separate the eggs. You will be using only the whites and if a yolk happens to break and gets mixed in, the recipe will not work. Place the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer and add the vanilla. Set aside until time to beat the whites.
- In a saucepan, add the water, sugar, cream of tartar (or white corn syrup). Cook on medium/high heat. Do not stir, or stir just enough to distribute the sugar. You don't want sugar crystals sticking to the sides of the pan. The mixture will begin to boil and become clear. After it boils for a minute or so, remove from the heat, you will be able to see that the sugar has dissolved.
- Beat the egg whites and vanilla to the soft peak stage. This happens rather quickly. At soft peak stage, the egg whites will not form peaks but will just fall over, cloud like. At this time, with the mixer beating on low speed slowly pour in a small stream of the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Avoid hitting the beaters as you pour because the hot syrup could splash onto you. Increase the mixer to high speed and beat approximately 7 minutes ( it could be longer if using a hand mixer) until stiff peaks form (stiff peaks stand straight up).
- The frosting should be used right away as it sets up rather quickly. The cake can be kept at room temperature or refrigerated. Leftover frosting can be refrigerated or frozen. We found that we did not need to rewhip, but instead just used a fork to lightly stir.
- Makes 10 cups frosting
- (This recipe can be halved. The recipe posted is doubled so that I would have plenty for filling, frosting, and decorative piping).
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Sounds delicious! Love the frosting too! :-)
This cake looks and sounds wonderful. I was wondering…as I like to make tall cakes, can you give me a guess-timate as to how tall a 3 layer 8″ cake might be? Thank you.
Hi is this cake ok for tiered cakes, also can it be used if sculpting a cake thank you xx
Can’t wait to try this recipe! Just wondering if you made it with 2″ or 3″ high cake pans?
Many thanks!
Rachel
Hi Cheryl, Yes, this recipe can be used for tiered cakes. We have not used this recipe for carving but I think only simple carving could be done while the cake was well chilled.
Hi Rachel, We used 2 inch deep pans.
Wow can’t wait to try this ! Can i use greek yogourt instead of sour cream since we don’t have this in Europe ! Many thanks !
Thank you for always sharing good recipes. This chocolate cake is good to covered on fondant.
Thank you
Hi Karine, Yes, you can use yogurt instead of sour cream. Full fat greek yogurt is our first choice substitute or you could use full fat regular yogurt. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
Hi Mercedes, Thank you for your nice compliment. Yes, it will hold up to fondant.
Hi Paula, I did measure the height of this cake after it was completed. It was 4 1/2 inches high. That could vary with the amount of filling and frosting you use. Hope you enjoy the recipe.
Hi again! Thanks for clarifying that you used 2″ high pans. My other question is whether you used Dutch-processed cocoa or “natural” cocoa powder? If a recipe doesn’t specify, I generally go with Dutch-Processed, but I figured I might as well doublecheck before I get started on the recipe. Many thanks again!
Hi Rachel, we used natural cocoa powder (Ghirardelli 100% unsweetened cocoa). I hope that you enjoy the cake!
I made this tonight almost everyone liked the cake. My son and myself was the only ones who didn’t care for the icing. I did torch it like you would meringue and they thought it tasted like marshmallows.
Mmm, I only have Dutched cocoa – it will probably mess with the leavening right?
Hi. Rachel, yes, you will need to use natural unsweetened cocoa
Loved this cake. If I wanted to make a smaller version, like just a 2-layer 8″ how would I adjust the ratio’s of ingredients? Many thanks!!
Hi Susan, I am happy you like the cake. You could half the recipe and you will have 2 1/2 cups batter for each 8×2 inch pan. Your cake layers will be 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches high. It sounds short but it will still look good once filled and frosted. I’m not sure how to adjust the leavenings for 3/4 of the recipe. If you decide to make the whole recipe, you could fill the two 8 inch pans and use the rest for cupcakes. The cupcakes will freeze well if kept airtight .
This is my favorite chocolate cake recipe. I made this smash cake for a first birthday and the cake was super moist!
Thanks so much for your feedback, Leslie! So happy that you liked the recipe, your cake is adorable!
This cake is a keeper !!!!! But forgot to ask you something…What type of border is this ??? I want to try making it…but not sure what top you used…Will await your answer… Thanks, Angie
Hi Angie, We did not make a note about what piping tip was used, possibly a Wilton French tip, but we will do some piping tomorrow to check it out and get back to you.
Hi Angie, The piping method used on this cake is the reverse shell. Melissa used the Ateco 869 tip. You may need to order that tip online. You can use the Wilton 8B tip to achieve the same look, it is just a bit smaller.
This choc cake is a HomeRun!!! Made this cake last night..so yummy. I used King Arthur Black Cocoa Powder. YUM!
Wonderful!! We’re so happy you like the recipe! I’ll have to give the black cocoa powder a try, that sounds great!!
This recipe looks great, but I really dislike coffee. If I used hot water instead of coffee do you think it would affect the flavor too much?
Hi Phoebe, The coffee enhances the chocolate flavor and I do not taste the coffee, though you might since you have a strong dislike of it. The cake will still be very good if you use hot water instead of coffee. Hope you enjoy the recipe.
How would I mix this using the conventional method?
What piping is this called ??? Would love to see how it’s done !!! Thanks, Angie
Hi Angie, this is a reverse shell border. If you are a member of our site, you can find an explanation in the link below– but if not, there are videos floating around if you did a quick search ;0) – As with any of the borders, you can really change up the look based on the type/size of tip, but the motion and technique are the same.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/video-tutorials/piping-with-a-star-tip-part-one-video-tutorial/
Hello. I have enjoyed making several of your recipes. This chocolate cake is delicious! I put homemade caramel into Swiss meringue buttercream for filling. Everyone enjoyed it tremendously!
Have you ever exchanged the regular wheat flour with a gluten-free flour blend? Wanting to try this chocolate cake with gluten free flour. Guess I will have to experiment! Thank you for sharing these wonderful recipes!
Hi Kay, I’m so happy you have enjoyed the recipe! Your filling using caramel sounds wonderful!! We have never tried using a gluten free blend but I would love to hear your thoughts if you give it a try
Can I use yogurt instead of sour cream? Its difficult to find over here.
Hi Zizi, Yes, you can. Our first choice if using yogurt is plain full fat Greek yogurt, but regular plain full fat is fine also. Hope you will enjoy the cake!
Bebe please give us one of your delicious fruit cake recipes in preparation for Christmas. This will be your Christmas gift to me.
Hi ZiZi, I am sorry I overlooked your post in November. I am going to disappoint you because I don’t have a fruitcake recipe to share. That is something I need to work on.
The Chocolate Sour Cream Cake layers are fantastic! I used the full amount of batter to bake two 8-inch layers in my top oven and twelve cupcakes in my bottom oven. I find sometimes that chocolate cake layers tend not to rise very much and can break or stick to the cake pans-these layers rose very high and were sturdy enough to be easily removed from the pans. I used a strawberry mousse filling and chocolate buttercream frosting to create a birthday cake requested by my twenty-four year old daughter. Everyone gave the cake an enthusiastic thumbs up!
Hi Marilyn, we’re so happy that you enjoyed the recipe. Pairing with strawberry mousse sounds delicious–thanks so much for your feedback!
Hi Melissa and BeBe- I am thinking of making this cake for an upcoming party. I’ll be making a 3 layer 12″ square. In looking at charts for amounts of batter per pan, and if I want to make a 1″ high 12″ square single layer, would you agree that I would need 8 cups of batter to accomplish this? Thank you.
Hi I’m new to your recipes . Is it ok to use fondant-on the sour cream chocolate cake . Some recipes on other sights not worked for me , to soft .your cakes are amazing ..
Hi Mandy, Yes, it is fine to use fondant on this sour cream chocolate cake.
Is it powdered sugar or granulated sugar in icing recepie. Does not say. Only says sugar
Hi Irene, To make the Minute Frosting, it is 2 cups granulated sugar.
I have two questions. When using just cocoa powder in a chocolate cake make for a less chocolatey flavor versus a recipe that use both cocoa powder and melted chocolate? Second question is regarding Seven Minute Frosting. Does cooking the egg whites and sugar just til sugar is melted long enough to kill any bacteria from the whites? I’m so used to making IMBC and taking it to 248 degrees. I live in Florida so am always concerned about safety.
Many thanks.
Not sure my first comment posted. I was asking if using both cocoa powder and melted chocolate gives you a stronger chocolate flavor when making a chocolate cake versus just using cocoa powder? Second question was in regard to make Seven Minute Frosting. I live in Florida and usually make IMBC which cooks water/sugar to 248 degrees to kill off any bacteria. Does just cooking sugar and water til the sugar is melted hot enough to kill any bacteria in the Seven Minute Frosting?
Many thanks
Hi Pam, Our chocolate cake recipes use only cocoa powder and we think they have a nice chocolate flavor……using melted chocolate as well as cocoa powder certainly may give another level of chocolate flavor. If you are worried about this frosting method, we also have another 7 minute frosting that is cooked for 7 minutes. It was used on our Lemon Sour Cream Cake, link to recipe below
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/lemon-sour-cream-cake/
Can I use buttermilk instead of the regular milk?
Hi Kim, Yes, that should be fine.
Will the chocolate sour cream cake scratch recipe be ok for some light carving?
Hi Sandy, Yes, the recipe should hold up to light carving. When carving you should refrigerate your cake under an airtight cover for at least 2 to 3 hours to firm it up.
Thank you so much for getting back to me! I have another question. I am looking for a chocolate cake recipe for my son’s Fireman’s Helmet groom’s cake. I made a 1/4 batch of this cake today in cupcakes as a test so he and his bride could taste it. I filled the cupcake baking cups 2/3 to 3/4 full of the batter. It barely rose to the top of the baking cups. Did I mess up by doing 1/4 batch or what are your thoughts? I am planning to do a full batch tomorrow but if I goofed some other way I need to fix it.
Thanks again for your help!!
I also made a batch (full recipe) of your White Almond Scratch Cake as a test for the brides cake. It rose 1/8 to 1/4 inch above the cupcake baking cups.
Hi Sandy, It can be difficult to reduce a recipe to 1/4 the batter amount and get a true result. Is the Reverse Creaming Method a mixing method you have used often? This is a link to Melissa’s Reverse Creaming if you would like to watch it.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/reverse-creaming-method-of-mixing-a-cake-video-tutorial/
When baking standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Scratch cupcakes typically bake up with little or no dome. Let me know how it goes.
I did a full batch of the ‘Chocolate Sour Cream Cake Scratch Recipe’. Waiting on my son and daughter-to-be to come do a tasting. I was prepared for it to not rise very much at all so I filled the cupcake baking cups between 1/4-1/8 inches from the top. It rose and spilled all over the cupcake pan! I don’t have much time to get this right. How full do you fill your pans? I love the taste and texture!!
For the bride’s cake I need to do a Ganache “Rose Gold” drip. Can you help me with information on this? From my GOOGLEing it looks like people paint ‘White Chocolate’ drip. I used vodka and Rose Gold Luster Dust. Even after 2-3 times to paint on it it is splotchy and you can still see the color of the “white” chocolate ganache. Mine looks HORRIBLE!!
Hi Sandy, We fill our cupcake liners approximately 2/3’s full. From the description of your cupcakes when making the White Almond Sour Cream recipe and the cupcakes rising approx. 1/4 inch above the liner. That sounds right. In the picture above the comments, you see that our cupcakes do not have a high dome. Melissa, will be answering your question about the Rose Gold drip today.
Hi Sandy, painting chocolate drips is trickier as the waxy surface of the chocolate doesn’t accept the paint as easily as when painting fondant accents (or even royal icing drips which are great on fondant cakes).
When I’ve painted white chocolate drips, I find it easier to tint the ganache a similar color so that the paint covers a little better. For instance, when I’m painting a gold drip, I tint the ganache ivory first. If your “paint” is too thin, just add a little more powder..and it is fine to go back for a second coat once dry.
Another option that you can look into is to create a drip by combining a little vodka, powdered sugar, and luster dust. I haven’t tried this method yet, but it looks like a great time saver. Here is a link to a video I found but I think there are many. Good luck! :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXsK9Gw6Qhs
Thanks so much for getting back to me again!! I am glad you said that about the Royal Icing! I had found one video talking about Royal Icing drip instead of white chocolate. This cake will be Buttercream Naked cake. I think Royal will still work. Do you agree?
I will send you pictures.
I just watched that video. It looks awesome!! She used equal parts of powdered sugar and luster dust. I had to special order and only have 2.5 g of the Rose Gold Luster dust. I am doing the top of a 6 inch and the part showing of the 8 and 10 inch as well as the drips on all three. Kind of afraid of running out of the Rose Gold. Sure is tempting to try it! Curious if I could use double powdered sugar and it would go farther and just have a lighter color drip.
I accidentally replied to your “info” email address! I copied it here.
It is for a three tier wedding cake iced with your crusting buttercream. However it is a naked cake so most of the buttercream will be removed or very very thin.
I started testing it drizzled on a cupcake that I iced yesterday and laid on it’s side, of course it had about 1/8-1/4 inch, buttercream instead of naked. It is starting to slide! Looks like I am going to test the ps, dust, vodka drip! The white chocolate ganache drip was REALLY bad! I am sending a picture of what she wants.
I’m glad that you tested the royal in advance, the fat in the buttercream must have caused the royal to break down. Good luck with the other version of drip! It will be a very pretty cake!
I wanted to make sure I was understanding correctly: your chocolate sour cream cake – scratch recipe is enough for three 9 inch pans. Did you fill them 2/3 full? Does it rise up to the top of the pans?
I believe I’m going to do 10 each pans and I will need four of them which looks to be about 24 cups of batter.
Hi Sandy, We almost always choose 3 cake pans for our cakes because we like to have more filling per slice. This recipe will make approximately 9 1/2 cups batter. I measure the batter per pan using my 1 cup measuring cup for dry ingredients. It helps to have the same amount in each pan. Using a scale would also be great. According to Cake Batter Amount chart, it is suggested that you can put 5 1/2 cups of batter in one 9×2 round pan. As a reference point, I recently made this recipe and put the batter into three 8×2 inch round pans. I put 3 cups of batter in each pan (and this is the suggested amount) when they were baked they were 1 1/2 inches high. We have recipes that make only 7 to 7 1/2 cups batter and we still bake in three 8 inch pans. Once they are filled and frosted they are nearly 5 inches tall and look fine. You can also bake at 350, if you like, keeping an eye on your cakes. Below is a link to a Batter Amounts Chart.
ttp://fromkarenskitchen.com/tips/party_cake_batter_amounts_baking_times_2inch_pan.php
My 8 inch cakes and the 6 inch baked up very nice. Both of my 10 inch started shrinking. I have had boxed cakes fall in the middle if I took them out of the oven too soon. When I took the toothpick out it looked clean. This one is still cooling so I haven’t leveled it yet but the first one has a good texture and is nice and moist.
I hope the 10 inch did not shrink too much, extra frosting takes care of a lot of problems.
I made cupcakes and they looked great as I pulled them from the oven but after They cooled they sank in the middle. What causes this? They were delicious though.
I am sorry that happened, but glad you were able to frost and enjoy the cupcakes. There could be several reasons this might happen. The oven set to the correct temperature, we bake cupcakes at 350 degrees 18 to 20 minutes. There are inexpensive oven thermometers to check if your oven is baking at the correct temperature. Make sure your baking powder and baking soda are not near or past their expiration date. Opening the oven door too often, or taking the cupcakes out of the oven too soon. The cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. I hope all will go smoothly next time.
I notice that you give measurements in cups and grams but when using the cups and adding the ingredients to the mixing bowl on a scale they do not equate. is there a reason for this? For instance the 2 cups of sugar above says 400 g sugar, but when measuring it weighs closer to 450g. will this have an impact on the cake?
Hi Tori, Are you using a measuring cup for dry ingredients? It should not be weighing 450g, that would be too much for the recipe. Are you zeroing out the weight of the bowl before weighing?
Put a bowl on the scale, click on the on/tare/off button on the scale to zero out the weight…..add sugar to the bowl until it reads 400g. Give me a follow up that it is working for you.
Hi Bebe
Thank you for your response. Yes I’m using a measuring cup for my dry ingredients and zeroing out the cake after adding each ingredient. The cake did sink a little. I will level it this morning to see if I can use it or need to start again. Going forward is it best just to follow the weighted measurements for better accuracy as opposed to the cups?
Hi! I can’t wait to try this. I love your site, and really enjoy the recipes I’ve made. I’ve noticed you frequently use cake flour, which I prefer as well; however, you don’t do so in this recipe. Could I use cake flour (1 C + 2 T. for every C of AP) or would that not work in this recipe for some reason?
Hi SaintsBaker, You are correct, 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons for every cup of all purpose flour. I think it will be fine to substitute with cake flour. Hope you will enjoy the cake.