Chocolate Sourdough Cake
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This chocolate sourdough cake is a great way to use up extra sourdough starter. The flavor and texture are so delicious!
Sourdough bread is one of my favorites. I always choose it when given the option at a restaurant, and I love to keep it on hand for sandwiches at home.
Whenever I’ve had sourdough starter on hand over the years, I’ve made this chocolate sourdough cake with some of the sourdough discard. The chocolate flavor really shines through in this single layer cake.
Making Homemade Sourdough Starter
I was so excited to learn that I could make my own sourdough starter with nothing but flour, water, air, and time. Here’s a tutorial about how to make your own starter if you don’t already have any.
Apparently it’s best to wait several weeks before attempting a classic sourdough bread recipe with a new starter. This chocolate cake is the perfect thing to experiment with while you’re waiting for your starter to be ready for the next stage.
This chocolate sourdough cake uses maple syrup as the sweetener, and it’s not very sweet. It’s more of a snack than a dessert cake. It tastes delicious, and nobody can tell that it has sourdough in it.
Chocolate Sourdough Cake Tips
If your sourdough starter is especially thick, you’ll need to add more water in the first step of the recipe. Remember that you’ll need to evenly add this mixture into the other cake batter ingredients.
For a more decadent dessert, add chocolate chips to the batter. You could also top this cake with chocolate ganache or chocolate buttercream frosting.
Try these delicious sourdough crackers for another way to use up your extra sourdough starter. And if you don’t have any starter on hand, I have a couple other chocolate cake recipes you’ll enjoy: this double chocolate bundt cake and this gluten-free chocolate zucchini cake.
Chocolate Sourdough Cake
Recommended Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup fed sourdough starter
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 cups white whole wheat flour or all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup maple syrup
- 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix together the starter, water, and flour in a bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it sit overnight. (Note: If your starter is very thick, add a bit of extra water so it will mix evenly into the cake mixture.)
- In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the eggs, maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients (egg mixture). Then add the sourdough flour mixture that was sitting overnight, and stir to fully combine. (Again, if the starter mixture seems too thick to blend evenly into the chocolate mixture, add a bit of water before adding it to the chocolate mixture so it will blend in smoothly.)
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool on a cooling rack before cutting.
Approximate Nutrition Info
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Sourdough Chocolate Cake Recipe Price Breakdown
This cake costs $5.53 to make. It contains 16 servings, so the cost per serving is $.35. This is a delicious snack that you can feel good about eating!
Excellent results using your recipe with a few minor tweaks.
Substituted carob powder for cocoa powder
Apple sauce for the coconut oil
Agave 3/4 cup for the 1 cup maple syrup
Organic sprouted spelt flour for white whole wheat.
Much less fat and very moist, not too sweet.
Next time I think I’ll add some walnuts and raisins, yum yum!
Can I use discard?
Yes
amazimg cake!
i use less salt and more of the sweetener (date honey in my case)
This cake turned out perfectly! I read some of the reviews before making it, and realized something a lot of people don’t know to keep in mind is the fact that different sourdough starters will have different humidity levels. So when I mixed the flour and starter to sour overnight, I added about a tablespoon of water based on the consistency it appeared. And it definitely wasn’t too firm of a dough, and mixed with the other ingredients well the next morning. I love having another healthier treat to use my sourdough starter for!!
Thanks for the helpful tip. I’ll add a note about it in the instructions.
Thank you you for the yummy recipe. My husband really a enjoyed it!
Fantastic cake. I substituted butter for the coconut oil.
I have made this recipe twice (once because it looks like a great cake and once because I had it book marked and it still looked like a great cake). Both times it was an utter failure. It turns into a chocolate cake with bits of sourdough bread baked into it. I followed the recipe exactly. My issue is that when I make the ‘flour mixture,’ it instantly turns into a bread dough. I let it sit for 8 hours and then it is a pizza dough. When I try to add it to the wet ingredients it just won’t mix in. I spend a lot of time mixing/stirring it in but in the end I still have many clumps of bread dough. Based on other reviews I always assume that it will turn out great once baked. Sadly this has not been the case for me. Both times I end up with a chocolate cake that has clumps of bread baked into it. Hopefully others have better luck with this recipe
I think mine came out the same but I haven’t tried it yet, but I see color differences and imagine the light parts will be my bits of sourdough bread 😬 lol.