US sour cream in baking: use soured cream or creme fraiche?

Och well... i will stick with creme fraiche.
Tried and tested, never lets me down, and tastes exactly like sour cream to me.   

I've tried the lemon juice in cream when I have forgotten to buy sour cream.  It is a good quick substitute but I find that to get it thick enough I have to use a lot of lemon and then there is a slight lemoney taste.  I still say that mixing together soured cream and creme fraiche is the closest you can get to the stuff we buy in the States

Depends what you want it for; I use it in cornbread, (well, more like Johnnycake)and it's fine.  Not sure if it would taste OK as a dip.

Cake update:
I went with soured cream (Sainsbury's brand -- seemed pretty similar to US sour cream to me), and the cake turned out fabulous! Since I took it to a dinner party, I had to leave the leftovers there. So I'm making another one tonight.

Kate

I agree that Sainsbury's brand soured cream is pretty close to what I was used to in the States.  We used it last night with our Mexican wraps, and it was exactly as thick and tasty as it should be!

Right, love the advanced search function here-
Was thinking of making Ina Garten's Sour Cream Coffee Cake for my co-workers-

Do you think the runny soured cream would be the right texture or should I go with creme freche?

Do you think the runny soured cream would be the right texture or should I go with creme freche?

Personally, I'd go for the crème fraiche - it'll make the cake richer, IMO. 

Creme Fraiche is easy easy easy to make too. I make it here Stateside cause it's a bit of a pain to find in the stores (and when you do find it, it's wayyyy overpriced)

In a jar that's been washed and boiled, use the ratio

1 cup heavy cream  (Heavy whipping cream for us still Stateside)
2 Tbs Cultured Buttermilk


Give it a shake, and let it sit out overnight in a warm place. At least 12 hours.  When you go and check on it, you'll see that it has thickened.  You can give it a whip with a whisk to make it even more thicker if you'd like as well.   

Put in the fridge at this point.  Should last ~10 days or so.

Good to know, except you can buy crème fraiche everywhere here, and I imagine just picking up a carton of that would be cheaper than buying heavy cream plus cultured buttermilk - which I'm not sure is even available over here.  They do sell a buttermilk product in a tiny carton over here (it's often all sold out when I'm looking for it) & I think I remember someone posting awhile back on here somewhere that it's not true cultured buttermilk, but something else.

ETA:  No, maybe I got the cultured buttermilk thing the wrong way round, here is the post (on another thread I was thinking of):

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=64367.msg908000#msg908000

But people do have trouble finding buttermilk here sometimes - in the normal grocery stores, it's not sold in a bigger size carton like in the US, so it took me awhile to actually identify that it was sold, where it was, what the carton looked like, etc.  (Meanwhile, crème fraiche is everywhere!)  Then when I went to buy some buttermilk once (for making fried chicken), of course the store was all out of it.  

Thanks, I think creme freche it is  (and not creme freche I make myself- though that sounds interesting!)

Thanks, I think creme freche it is  (and not creme freche I make myself- though that sounds interesting!)

Let us know how it turns out - sounds super yummy! 

Let us know how it turns out - sounds super yummy! 

Will do