Not your ordinary German Chocolate Cake

You  know those recipes you read that you just can’t stop thinking about?  You glance at the ingredient list, are immediately intrigued, and the dish begins to haunt your foodie-daydreams.

You do have foodie-daydreams, right?  Please tell me I’m not the only one…  Humor me, would you?

Well shortly after stumbling upon this recipe my thoughts became haunted.  Could I pull this off?  Would the Omnivore eat it?  Would I eat it?

And then I saw on my work schedule that I had a staff meeting coming up…

and as Dr. Phil says, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.  So let’s just revisit some of my past staff meeting contributions:

Avocado Butter Cream Iced Cake

and Vegan Mac and Cheese

and Potato Candy

So it seemed that my staff meeting was a natural fit for this recipe for a German Chocolate Cake — well, Chocolate Sauerkraut (this is the German part) Cake, that is.

Should I have abandoned ship when the Omnivore gagged while I was mixing this cake?  Maybe.  But how could I *not* try it!?

Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake (adapted from here)

1/2 c. butter
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 c. flour sifted with 1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 c. water
1 8 oz. can sauerkraut, drained, rinsed, and finely snipped

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa.  Add to creamed mixture, alternating with water, beating after each addition.  Stir in sauerkraut.  Turn into greased and floured 9×13″ baking pan.  Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.  Cool in pan.

Sour Cream Frosting (4-5 cups of frosting)
1 stick butter
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
5-6 c powdered sugar

Cream butter and sour cream together.  Add remaining ingredients, finishing with incremental additions of the powdered sugar.

The sourcream frosting recipe is great.  I LOVE it.  The cake recipe…could use some improvement.  It wasn’t a blow-me-away-cake, but it was a fun try.  It has the texture of a carrot cake.  Next time I would sub something richer for the water and perhaps include mini-chocolate chips to enchance the flavor.