If you love chocolate, you will absolutely be in heaven with your first bite of Sour Cream Chocolate Cake! A moist, rich, not-too-sweet chocolate cake topped with decadent, creamy homemade chocolate frosting… this is chocolate perfection!
For the Chocolate Lovers
I do love chocolate and sometimes, when a craving hits, nothing else will do. But I’m not one who craves chocolate and always chooses a chocolate dessert when given the option. I’m actually a fruit dessert fan.
However… and this is a BIG ‘however’… I adore chocolate cake. Especially when it’s homemade. Especially when it’s frosted with perfect chocolate frosting.
This Sour Cream Chocolate Cake is for sure my all-time favorite. It’s sweet, but the cake especially isn’t overpoweringly sweet. It’s dense, but not too dense. Just perfect.
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Making Sour Cream Chocolate Cake
You’ll start by sifting and gently mixing together the dry ingredients for the cake:
Next, you’ll use an electric mixer (I love my KitchenAid!) to cream together butter and brown sugar before mixing in the eggs and vanilla extract:
To finish off the cake batter, you’ll combine the wet mixture with the dry mixture plus sour cream and boiling water. Stir the cake batter only as much as necessary for all ingredients to be combined. It’s never a good idea to over-beat a cake batter!
A Note About the Pan
I recommend a 4-4.8 qt 10×15 inch glass dish, like this one (click for affiliate link). If you have a slightly smaller Pyrex dish, that will be fine, just be sure you do not fill the dish more than halfway full with the batter! You may also need to shorten the baking time if you use a smaller dish.
Pour your batter into the greased glass baking dish:
Chocolate Frosting
As the cake is baking, you can whip up the chocolate frosting. I started by chopping 90% cacao unsweetened baking chocolate and semi-sweet baking chocolate. I used Bakers Chocolate.
I melted butter in a Pampered Chef batter bowl (affiliate link) in the microwave. I love the batter bowl for making this frosting because I can use just the one bowl from start to finish. Fewer dishes is a good thing!
You’ll stir the chopped chocolate into the melted butter and then microwave in 30-second increments until the chocolate is melted.
I added the remaining frosting ingredients and beat the mixture until smooth.
You’ll want to cover and set your frosting aside while the cake bakes and then cools completely to room temperature. Once the cake is cooled, you can frost away!
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*Drool*
And there you have it! An incredibly delicious chocolate cake made with sour cream!
PrintSour Cream Chocolate Cake
- Yield: 18 1x
Description
If you love chocolate, you will absolutely be in heaven with your first bite of Sour Cream Chocolate Cake! A moist, rich, not-too-sweet chocolate cake topped with decadent, creamy homemade chocolate frosting… this is chocolate perfection!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3 cups packed brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups sour cream
- 1 1/3 cup boiling water
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
- 3 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, chopped
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Grease a 10×15 inch (4-4.5 quart) glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract.
- Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt into another large mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Add the wet mixture and sour cream to the dry ingredients and beat with an electric mixer just until well blended. Add the boiling water then stir until combined.
- Pour the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes until a toothpick or knife is inserted into the center of the cake and comes out clean. Set the cake aside to cool.
- Microwave the butter in a microwave safe bowl just until melted. Stir in the semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval, until the chocolate is melted.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted chocolate and butter mixture, powdered sugar, sour cream, and vanilla; beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Spreadthe frosting evenly onto the cooled to room temperature cake.
Makes 18 servings. Leftover cake should be covered tightly and refrigerated.
Keywords: chocolate, chocolate cake, sour cream chocolate cake, chocolate mayonnaise cake, homemade chocolate cake, chocolate frosting
Share the Chocolate Recipe Love!
I know this recipe will knock your socks off, so tell me how it turned out for you! You can leave me a comment and recipe rating below.
After you make Sour Cream Chocolate Cake, be sure to snap a picture and upload it to Pinterest. All you have to do is click here to see the pin and then click on the “Add Photo” button to add your own photo and show others how they turned out for you.
Have a happy chocolate-y day!
Mama Ash {Erica} says
I have to make this for my kids. Good ingredients and I like the sour cream addition for moisture and flavour. I definitely don’t bake as much I should. This looks perfect.
tara pittman says
That cake looks so moist. I love that you put sour cream in the frosting too.
★★★★★
1stopmom says
I have never made a cake with sour cream before. Yours looks moist and delicious! I just might have to try this recipe but not let my husband see. If he sees me adding the sour cream he just might not try it, lol
Mary says
I can taste this now in all its glory! It looks so delicious!
What Corinne Did says
oh my god i should not be eating those kind of post when i am going to bed ahah! this cake looks so so good!
★★★★★
Kelli A says
My aunt makes a sour cream cake that is out of this world! I wonder if its the same, similar recipe.. This looks so good!
★★★★★
carissashaw says
It may be! These classic recipes are very similar. My grandma used to make mayonnaise cake with a white icing.
Gemille Sleweon says
I’ve never made a cake using sour cream, but ive read that it gives the cake a smoother texture. I have used yogurt in place of eggs to make brownies before.
carissashaw says
I haven’t tried it, but I bet yogurt could be a good substitute for the sour cream in this recipe.
Kate Andrews says
I think my favorite part of this recipe is the fudge icing. I would probably eat it all before I even frosted the cake!
KRYSTLE COOK says
This looks SO yummy! I love chocolate cake with ice cream. I have to have ice cream otherwise I won’t eat it. I’m weird – and it has to be warm!
carissashaw says
That sounds perfect! I think this cake would be AMAZING warmed with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Wendy Polisi says
This looks so great. Sour cream adds so much flavor to a recipe like this.
Sara Welch says
I really love cooking with sour cream. I use it in a bunch of my recipes!
Becca Wilson says
This chocolate cake looks like it would be so amazing! I definitely need to give this recipe a try.
Athena says
That looks so delicious. We make something very similar but with mayonnaise instead of sour cream. Same concept – totally delicious.
swathi says
Yes Sour cream makes chocolate cake so smooth I make Texas sheet cake with sour cream in it. I can’t get enough of chocolate always.
★★★★★
Blair Villanueva says
This cake looks delicious 😀 I love creamy cakes and perfect with brewed coffee, or tea.
★★★★★
Cheryl says
I love me some chocolate. I’ll be wiping these up!