Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake

Ok, call me odd, but I have always wanted to make a chocolate sauerkraut cake. I know I can hear you now: “SAUERKRAUT? EW!”  Yes, this is crazy but I felt the sauerkraut would add moistness and boy I was right! This cake is fudge-y, rich, light, and incredibly moist! I urge you to try this recipe.

First, the sauerkraut adds moistness and tenderness, but also does not make it dense. Second, it’s acidic or has a tang that adds a backbone to the sweetness. Third, it adds texture that is similar to coconut. Rinsing the kraut in cold water tames the salty, sour flavor and chopping it up finely ensures that it won’t clump together.



10 tablespoons of butter

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sour cream, room temperature

4 oz. chocolate, chopped

8 oz cup coffee, HOT

2/3 cup sauerkraut, washed, dried and chopped

2 teaspoons instant coffee


For the Frosting:

Cream Cheese Frosting

12 ounces cream cheese, softened

6 tablespoons butter, softened

4 teaspoons sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups confectioners sugar



Heat oven to 350 degrees

Grease bundt pan with butter and dust with cocoa powder, set aside.

For the Cake:

Sift together dry ingredients, set aside.  In a separate bowl, whisk together hot coffee, chopped chocolate, cocoa powder and instant coffee until smooth. This allows the cocoa powder to bloom in flavor.


Using a stand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy about 3-6 minutes. Add in eggs, one at a time, until combined. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla. Reduce mixer speed and add flour in 3 additions, alternating with chocolate mixture, scraping down the bowl, do not over beat. Batter will be light and fluffy.

Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and smooth top with spatula. Bake cake 45-50 minutes or until a cake taster comes out clean.

Meanwhile for the icing, in a food processor add cream cheese, butter, sour cream, vanilla and salt until combined. Scraping down bowl as needed. Add confectioners sugar and process until smooth. Add water if needed to thin out. Cover and refrigerate.

Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto a rack.

Frost cooled cake.



Thanks for stopping by!



Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s
