Chocolate sauerkraut cake
I kid you not, sauerkraut cake is a “thing” and has been for some time. If we eat carrot cake, why not sauerkraut cake?
And my dear friend, Zoe Burmester of Sugar Street Studios agreed to make this sauerkraut cake on a grand scale for Sauerkrautathon 2018 - an event organised by me and Katie Venner of Tracebridge Sourdough, that aimed to set a Guinness World Record for the largest dish of bacterially fermented sauerkraut. And when the last cabbage was salted and massaged and added to the vat, we celebrated by eating a slice of delicious sauerkraut cake!
I can’t promise your end product will look like hers. But it will taste like it. This is a great way to use up excess sauerkraut (although that concept doesn’t exist here!!) and it adds fibre to your cake, which your microbes will appreciate.
So, here it is - sauerkraut cake. Or is that sauerkrautathon cake?
Chocolate sauerkraut cake
Ingredients
175g butter unsalted (softened)
1 cup golden caster sugar
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
3 large eggs room temp
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of whole milk room temp
1 cup of sauerkraut finely chopped
2/3 cup dried shredded coconut
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (optional but delicious)
Equipment
Two 8 inch round cake tins
Whisk or cake mixer
Mixing bowl
Sieve
Spatula or spoon
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C and butter and dust with flour two 8 inch round cake pans.
Cream butter and sugars together in a cake mixer with the paddle attachment (or with a handheld mixer or a wooden spoon), until light and fluffy. This takes longer than you think (especially with a wooden spoon!).
Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl in between.
Add in the vanilla paste.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt.
With the mixer running on a low speed, add a third of the dry mix to the egg mixture, then a third of the milk, then alternate between the two until all used up, finishing with the dry ingredients. The mix should be fully blended and smooth, but turn mixer off as soon as you have reached this stage.
Fold in the finely chopped sauerkraut, coconut (and walnuts if using).
Pour into 2 x 8 inch prepared cake tins and bake for between 25 / 30 minutes. The cakes are cooked when an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Once cool, sandwich the cakes together with chocolate buttercream of your choice.
Serve to friends and family and see if they can guess the mystery ingredient.
