Chocolate Sourdough Mini Cakes

Suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Recipe makes 6 cakes.

Having recently gotten my hands on some sourdough starter and gotten into the rhythm of a diligent feeding routine, I've been looking for as many recipes as possible that incorporate the weird funky fermented magic of sourdough. This recipe is a variation of Sandor Elllix Katz's recipe for Sourdough Devastation Cake (from his book The Art of Fermentation) and it is absolutely wonderful.

If you don't have your own sourdough starter, you can get some from any good bakery. If you don't use all of it in this recipe, make sure you keep it and feed it. I plan to put up a post soon about sourdough and how to care for your starter, but in the meantime, there are plenty of blog posts and youtube tutorials out there about proper sourdough etiquette. Baking with sourdough is a bit of a commitment but it is absolutely worth the effort, especially when it yields results like this cake.

Ingredients:

• 125ml sourdough started, 
• 225ml warm water, 
• 190g plain flour, 
• 6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, 
• 220g granulated sugar,  
• 1 tsp baking soda, 
• 1/2 tsp salt, 
• 1 tbsp espresso powder, 
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, 
• 6 tbsp melted coconut oil, 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Method:

• In a large mixing bowl, combine sourdough starter and water. Mix to combine and add flour. Mix until a wet dough forms.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 3 hours or until bubbles begin to form. This is a sign that the sourdough is alive and fermentation is taking place.
• Combine all remaining dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
• Combine all wet ingredients and mix.
• Add wet and dry ingredients to sourdough mixture and combine thoroughly using a hand mixer.
• Once well combined, cover and let sit for another hour.
• Preheat oven to 170c and lightly grease 6 ramekin dishes with non-stick spray.
• Fill each ramekin with an even amount of cake batter. The batter will rise in the oven so do not fill the ramekins more than 3/4 of the way full.
• Place ramekins on a baking dish and place in the centre of the preheated oven.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Once the ramekins are cool enough to handle, slide a paring knife around the edge to release the cake. Invert onto a plate and place the cake back onto the cooling rack for 10-15 minutes.
• Dust with powdered sugar and serve while still warm.