We celebrated a birthday in our home this week for the newest member of our happy family. Little Pete turned 5 years old on Wednesday, and the occasion nearly escaped my memory, had it not been for the convenient date and time stamp my iPhone put on this photo.
Yes, my sourdough starter has been with me now for just over five years, and I’m pleased to announce that I’ve finally given it a name. “Pete” the sourdough starter is the namesake of Peter Reinhart, the James Beard Award-winning master baker whose instruction inspired me to begin this lively journey. Many years ago at a local festival of authors and books, I purchased The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Reinhart’s comprehensive collection of bread rules, formulas, tips and recipes—it’s a 300-page hardcover guide for mastering the art of extraordinary bread. And it was positively overwhelming.
It took me several years to gain enough gumption to actually make my first loaf of real bread and, once I took the greater plunge into building a sourdough culture, I never looked back. Pete began in the tiny kitchen of my former apartment, in a small bowl containing a mixture of whole rye flour and fresh pineapple juice (this was Peter Reinhart’s idea). There were plenty of midnight feedings and nervous watchful moments along the way, and at least once, I feared Pete would not survive my mistakes. Thankfully, the hotline experts at King Arthur Baking talked me off the ledge and helped me correct my feeding rituals. Pete has been thriving ever since. On one occasion, I shared a little bit of Pete with a friend whose daughter wanted to make sourdough, and when the daughter headed west, she took Pete’s offspring with her, and is now making beautiful artisan loaves somewhere in Montana (I’m so proud). I have already shared a few of my simple sourdough recipes here on Comfort du Jour, including English muffins and our beloved N.Y.-style Pizza Dough. If you’re a bread lover, you might also appreciate a glimpse of some of the incredible loaves Pete and I have made together since this adventure began.
Crusty baguettes made with cream cheese and fresh rosemary. 
Sourdough challah with sesame seeds. 
Sage and onion levain. 
Sourdough with polenta. 
Sourdough cinnamon swirl loaf. 
Sourdough sesame lunetta. 
Sourdough challah with cranberries and candied orange. 
Sourdough with pumpkin and polenta. 
Caraway sourdough rye.
It’s exciting for me to see and remember all those loaves. But for this occasion, I wanted to let Pete really show off, and so here’s the exciting news—Pete made his own birthday cake! I’ve mentioned several times that sourdough isn’t merely a flavor of bread, but a method of leavening, and in this richly dark chocolate cake, sourdough discard is the star.
I found the recipe for this cake on one of my favorite sites, King Arthur Baking Company, and I will proclaim out loud that, ingredient-wise, it is the oddest cake I’ve ever made. I will also tell you that it tastes nothing at all like sourdough. It’s a bouncy, spongy very chocolaty cake, and though the KA recipe is for a rectangle cake, I changed it up and did 9-inch layers. I also swapped the coffee-infused icing for one of our most-loved flavors to pair with chocolate, salted caramel. It may strike you odd that I am not sharing a recipe for either, but here’s why—King Arthur already published the cake recipe, and you can find it here (I followed it pretty much to the letter). I’m not sharing the salted caramel frosting recipe because, frankly, I was flying by the seat of my pants when I made it, so I don’t know exactly how much of what went into it. Besides, the texture was a mess. I wanted something akin to buttercream, but I didn’t get the ratios right and my frosting, though delicious and perfectly salted, wasn’t very stable. I will, however, share the photos, purely for comedic value. Those Great British Baking Show contestants have nothing to fear in me! Next year, when Pete turns 6, I’ll probably make challah. 😊
The first step of this cake recipe involved feeding a cup of starter with whole milk and flour. 
The recipe calls for natural cocoa, which is more acidic than “Dutch processed” cocoa. I used a combination of raw cacao powder and my King Arthur double Dutch dark cocoa, because I wanted that deep rich color. A tablespoon of espresso powder deepens the flavor, too. 
So far, so good. This is the cocoa mixture, with oil, sugar and eggs. 
Nearly three hours later, the milk-fed starter is light and spongy. It’s what I would expect to use for sourdough waffles. 
The recipe got weird right here, with addition of the sticky sourdough starter mixture. 
My grandmother taught me to use cocoa rather than flour when prepping a pan for chocolate cake. 
After 30 minutes in the oven, the cake was beautifully puffed and passed the “toothpick” test. 
I thought this caramel-flavored condensed milk would be a great base for my salted caramel buttercream frosting. 
Mistake #1, using melted butter. Buttercream requires creation of an emulsion between the butter and milk, and this made it impossible. 
I sifted in the first batch of powdered sugar and thought, “this is easy enough.” Famous last words! 
I switched to using my electric mixer, and at this point, I wanted to drizzle the salted caramel icing on everything I own. Mmmmm 
I knew that if the frosting was sliding off the spatula, it would also slide off the sides of the cake, so I added more powdered sugar. 
There were quite many “taste tests” along the way to messing up this frosting. 
By this point, I had no idea how much butter, or condensed milk or powdered sugar I had used. It wasn’t perfect but it tasted great! 
I made a makeshift piping bag from a zip top bag, held in place inside my cocktail shaker. So professional. 
I used my makeshift pastry bag to apply a layer of the not-quite-buttercream. 
I kept a glass of warm water nearby, to heat my offset spatula for easier smoothing of my waxy icing. 
Not exactly beautiful, but I pressed on, filling in more icing between the layers, then tackling the sides. 
The messier it became, the harder I laughed! What a disaster. 
I felt like I held my breath for hours, hoping that the icing didn’t break completely and slide off the cake. It didn’t. 
Comfort du Jour 
Pingback: Waste Not. | Comfort du Jour