Written by Kate Tietje
We love chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. I make chocolate cake or brownies a lot, at least compared to the other treats I make. But this one was better than most — rich but not overpowering, sweet but not too sweet, and moist and yummy. Everyone liked it.
For a real “treat,” use unbleached white flour (I’ve used it recently because I keep forgetting to sprout some wheat…must get on that). For a healthier treat, use sprouted. It changes the texture only slightly. Top it with whipped cream, chocolate hazelnut sauce, real buttercream (which uses no powdered sugar!), or fresh fruit.
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups maple syrup
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups unbleached flour or sprouted flour
- 1 cup milk
Directions:
Step 1: Add the butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs to your bowl. Stir this together.
Step 2: Add your cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
Step 3: Stir together well. A hand mixer is very helpful to get it to mix smoothly.
Step 4: Add half the flour, then milk, then the other half of the flour. Beat well.
Step 5: Pour the cake into two 8″ round or 8 x 8″ square pans. A 9 x 13 would work, or it should make 18-24 cupcakes.
Step 6: Bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes (test for doneness by sticking a toothpick in the center — if it comes out clean, it’s done).
Step 7: After the cake cools, frost or top as desired and serve!
In the original version of this recipe (in 2012), I had my then 4-year-old daughter, Rebekah, help me make it. She’s a little more independent in her baking now! (She made the cupcakes and used to update the images herself.) I couldn’t help but keep one image of her helping me back then; it was too cute!
Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups maple syrup
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 2 cups unbleached or sprouted flour
- 1 cup milk
Instructions
- Add the butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs to your bowl. Stir this together.
- Add your cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
- Stir together well. A hand mixer is very helpful to get it to mix smoothly.
- Add half the flour, then milk, then the other half of the flour. Beat well.
- Pour the cake into two 8" round or 8 x 8" square pans. A 9 x 13 would work, or it should make 18-24 cupcakes.
- Bake at 350ºF for 25-30 minutes (test for doneness by sticking a toothpick in the center -- if it comes out clean, it's done).
- After the cake cools, frost or top as desired and serve!
How do you top your chocolate cake?
The cake looks so yummy! I had a question prompted by seeing the Trader Joe’s flour in the pictures. I am soon moving closer to a Trader Joe’s and was wondering what you have found to be a good price/quality there.
This is going to be my birthday cake! So excited!
Love the pics utilizing “your little helper”. What a cutie!
to make it dairy free, could you use coconut oil and milk?
Hi Teresa, I’m sure it would work! I haven’t tested this cake that way, but I often bake things using coconut products interchangeably with butter/milk.
[…] This one, while not the fluffy delight a cake mix always turns out, was moist, rich, chocolatey, and smooth. Still heavy and dense, but not badly so. It reminded me of a chocolate mousse cake. I would make it again… but I would still like to find a fluffy one! I know, I need to get some sucanat and give that a try… and maybe see if I could find whole wheat pastry flour — ultra grain is as close as we can get at our local stores. […]
[…] chocolate cake is also from MAM. Mine is much darker than her picture, perhaps because I have Hershey’s […]