Dreamy Cacao Chocolate Cake

Liana Werner-Gray

by | Updated: December 3rd, 2016 | Read time: 2 minutes

Forget fancy flowers, sappy cards and other trivial trinkets. To really wow your true love this Valentine’s Day, serve up a slice of the richest, most decadent chocolate cake to ever come out of your oven. Consider powdered mixes a thing of your past. Instead, fill your mixing bowl with pure, whole-food ingredients – like raw cacao, coconut sugar and coconut oil – to create a heavenly chocolate dessert that will leave you with no regrets.

 

Dreamy Cacao Chocolate Cake

Dreamy Cacao Chocolate Cake

Makes 16 slices

Ingredients

Cacao cake
1/2 cup cacao powder, plus more for dusting pans
1 cup extra-virgin coconut oil, plus more for greasing pans
1-3/4 cups coconut sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup almond milk (or hemp milk or rice milk)
2 large organic, free-range eggs + 2 large egg yolks (room temperature)

Cake flour
1/4 cup oat flour (rolled oats, ground)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour(or rice flour for gluten-free cake)
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup buckwheat flour

Melted chocolate
5 oz. (8 Tbsp.)  melted cacao butter
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 Tbsp. cacao powder

Chocolate icing
3/4 cup cacao powder
1/4 cup extra virgin coconut oil
2 cups coconut sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Grease two 8” round cake pans with coconut oil and dust with cacao powder. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper rounds; set aside.
  3. To prepare cake flour, blend together all cake flour ingredients to achieve a fine, flour-meal consistency. In medium-sized bowl, whisk together cake flour, cacao powder, baking powder and sea salt.
  4. To prepare melted chocolate, combine all melted-chocolate ingredients in double boiler and let melt, stirring often; set aside.
  5. In large bowl, beat together coconut oil and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy. One at a time, add eggs and egg yolks, beating after each is added. Add melted chocolate and vanilla and beat again. Set mixer to low speed and add 1/3 flour mixture, half of the almond milk, 1/3 flour mixture, remaining half of almond milk and remaining 1/3 flour.
  6. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
  7. Let cakes cool in pans for 15 minutes; swipe knife around edges, then transfer cakes to wire rack to cool completely.
  8. To make chocolate icing, combine coconut sugar and coconut oil in medium-sized bowl and use electric mixture to beat until thick and well-combine. Add remaining icing ingredients and blend until smooth.
  9. To ice cake, place on half on a plate and spread on 1/3 frosting. Stack second cake on top and spread remaining icing on cake.
  10. Serve with fresh berries, cashew cream or vegan ice cream.