Sour Cream in Germany

Our answer

Nigella's Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake (from Feast and on the Nigella website) uses sour cream in the cake batter and also in the icing. In the UK and the US sour cream usually has a fat content of 14-18%. Saure sahne has a fat content of about 10%. This would be fine to use in the cake batter. It may also be possible to use it in the icing but lower fat products can be a bit unstable if they are heated directly. So there is a risk that using it in the icing could cause the icing to split if it is heated too much.

Instead you may prefer to use schmand in the icing. This has a fat content of 20-29% so will be much more stable when heated. The aternative would be to try and find a creme fraiche creme legere (reduced fat version of creme fraiche). This has a fat content of about 15% so should be suitable for both the cake and icing. We also understand that some stores may carry "saure sahne extra" which has a fat content of around 18% and again would be suitable for both.