Sourdough Chocolate Cake

There have been quite few late nights and early mornings this week, so I figured one more couldn't hurt.  Thus this recipe is the result of chronic fatigue nonetheless it turned out very well.  This isn't a recipe for just any sourdough though.  If your starter is very sour I'd suggest using a more conventional recipe.  I also used some clear vanilla extract that my mother brought home from the Dominican Republic, if you're using the artificial stuff then I'd recommend quadrupling the amount in the recipe below.

Sourdough Chocolate Cake

6 ounces of semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (read note above)
1-1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tsp of gluten flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1-1/2 cups of sourdough starter

Turn on the oven at its lowest setting for a couple of minutes, the oven should be at 80-85F. Turn on the oven light.  Combine the water and chocolate chips in a small sauce pan and melt the chocolate chips.  Whisk the the chocolate water mixture and add the baking soda.  The mixture will foam up , place in the fridge to cool or place in cold water in the sink and whisk. Sift together the flour, salt, gluten and cocoa and set aside.  Cream together the butter and the sugar and the cooled chocolate mixture, add eggs and mix thoroughly.  While mixing the butter eggs and sugar add the flour mixture one tablespoon at a time.  Then add the sourdough starter and mix thoroughly.  Pour the mixture into buttered spring form pan and place in the oven for about 30 minutes.  At the end of thirty minutes remove the cake mixture and preheat the oven to 350F.  Bake for 60-90 minutes (until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean).

You'll have to watch the cake closely.  If you get quite a bit of rise this seems to lengthen the baking time.  The size of the pan also seems to affect the baking time.