Chocolate Cake with Sour Milk

If life hands you lemons, make lemonade! (A popular proverb)

If life hands you sour milk, make a chocolate cake! (My corollary!)

It started with a midnight realization that a container of milk had turned sour!...














My hunt for a recipe using sour milk started at the website, Recipe Link, where I typed in the keywords cake and sour milk.

A number of options popped up - including one entitled Recipes Using Sour Milk. I chose the one that uses the most sour milk - 2 cups - as I have at least 3 cups to get rid of!

It is called Mabel Robbins' Eggless Dark Cake (dating back to the war years, when eggs were scarce)...

I have copied it below, but - as usual - I made modifications...

• I replaced the "melted lard" with olive oil.

• I added a generous sprinkle of cinnamon to disguise any taste of baking soda that might be there.

• And instead of 3 cups of flour, I used 1/2 cup each of 6 different kinds of flour: 1/2 cup of unbleached white flour, 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup of soy flour, 1/2 cup of spelt flour, 1/2 cup of oat flour, and 1/2 cup of almond "flour" (sometimes called ground almonds or almond meal).

I also baked the cake in silicone muffin "tins" - as I plan to freeze most of them... (And in this flexible bakeware they're easy to remove...)

As I sit and wait for them to bake, I wonder... - with so little wheat flour in them - will they rise?! We'll see!














Yes, they definitely have little "dimples" in the middle! (which could be hidden by a dab of icing - or yogurt - or could be served upside down!)














I had enough batter for 18 cupcakes and two very small cakes.

Here is the original recipe from Recipe Link:

MABEL ROBBINS' EGGLESS DARK CAKE
2 c. white sugar
4 tbsp. cocoa
2 scant tsp. soda
Pinch of salt
3 c. flour
2 c. sour milk*
1/2 c. melted lard
Vanilla to taste
Powdered sugar
*To make sour milk. Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup milk and let stand for 10-15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 13 x 9 pan. Sift together all dry ingredients. Add melted lard and beat. Flavor with vanilla. Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. A war department recipe from WWII when they rationed eggs.