Sourdough Chocolate Cake
an utterly delectable oxymoron
This recipe originated from the King Arthur website. I didn't anticipate the adjustments, but they were made nonetheless...

1 cup starter (fed and rested)
1 cup of milk
2 cups flour

This seemed like a good start, until I realized that I didn't have a full 2 cups of flour, just 1.5, and a whole lot of whole wheat. So I thought, ok, I guess we'll just supplement the rest with whole wheat. So, off we went to church, and let the concoction bubble away for a couple of hours...

1.5 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup natural cocoa
2 eggs

So we get back and I start going down the list and putting things into a bowl. "cream" everything together and then dump in the eggs: check. Then I remember, the cocoa! So I search high and low in this kitchen that I've been gettin' acquainted with on Sundays, and realize that I can't find the baking cocoa. So I use what I can find: hot cocoa mix. Luckily, some of it is some delicious raspberry hot cocoa mix by Lake Champlain Chocolates. And some of it, less luckily, perhaps, is Swiss Mix. With this second adjustment, I'm just hoping this turns out be edible.

Into the oven it goes: 350 for 40-45 minutes in greased 9-inch cake pans. Ok, we didn't have any of those, so I just used a pair of round Pyrexes. Wouldn't I love to be able to work with a springform pan, but these worked fine. Granted it's not gonna pop right out like a loaf of bread, but they were utterly delicious. Light, and the middle didn't fall into a miserable sinkhole. Next time, we'll use baking cocoa and all-purpose flour and perhaps, we'll attain a new level of eating pleasure. Until then, we're pretty happy with where we're at.