Baking a cake...

[whywhy]

What is the difference between whole milk and sour cream, when baking a cake?

 

[Andy M.]

Taste and texture. Are you asking about substituting one for the other?

 

[whywhy]

Yes... My recipe calls for sour cream but, I only have whole milk.

 

[Andy M.]

You may be able to get an edible cake using milk but it won't taste the same. If the recipe calls for baking soda, the sour cream would provide the acidic environment necessary to get the soda to work. Milk does not.

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

What Andy M said, can you get some Greek yogurt.

 

[Silversage]

Buttermilk or yogurt are sometimes satisfactory substitutes for sour cream. I wouldn't use whole milk. The acidic balance will be off.

If you have none of these, try making buttermilk substitute. Add lemon juice or vinegar to whole milk to sour it. It will approximate buttermilk in the recipe.

 

[LPBeier]

One thing you could do, though it won't be perfect, is to make "buttermilk" out of whole milk by putting a couple of tablespoons of vinegar in a measure and filling it with milk to the amount called for. Stir it up and let sit at room temperature about 5 - 10 minutes. I have purposely suggested a high vinegar content to bring up the acidity and hopefully thicken the milk.

Besides acidity, sour cream is thick and milk is thin. The texture of the cake will be affected if more liquid is used than necessary.

Hope that helps.

 

[LEFSElover]

You may be able to get an edible cake using milk but it won't taste the same. If the recipe calls for baking soda, the sour cream would provide the acidic environment necessary to get the soda to work. Milk does not.

can the addition of lemon or vinegar to the
milk do almost same thing?