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
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
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease two 8” round cake pans with coconut oil and dust with cacao powder. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper rounds; set aside.
- 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.
- To prepare melted chocolate, combine all melted-chocolate ingredients in double boiler and let melt, stirring often; set aside.
- 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.
- Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Let cakes cool in pans for 15 minutes; swipe knife around edges, then transfer cakes to wire rack to cool completely.
- 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.
- 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.
- Serve with fresh berries, cashew cream or vegan ice cream.