Y'all. This. Layer. Cake. It is the perfect rich and fluffy chocolate cake. It achieves seriously crave-able chocolate cake status all while being gluten free! It’s versatile and can be served with many different toppings. The one pictured here was made with chocolate frosting and a tart cherry topping… because it was my birthday.
If you elect to do the same, you may recognize that this cake is very similar to a Black Forest Cake (only with chocolate frosting...because it was my birthday and I’ll have my cake, my way, thank you very much!). My Tart Cherry Sauce soaks slowly into the cake and it's divine!
Here a few of the things I used to make this cake special & easy:
Don’t skimp on this step! This high fat cocoa is crucial to the finished product’s taste and texture.
Sometimes, it’s convenient to be able to purchase a frosting and not have to make your own. For those times, I love this one from Miss Jones.
These tart cherries from Oregon fruit are packed in water, rather than a typical sugary syrup, and are the perfect accompaniment to this cake when you use them to make my Super Simple Cherry Topping. You can get them at many grocers, Amazon, or Walmart.
All the Chocolate Cake
Yield: Two 9'' rounds or 2 dozen cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 ½ t baking powder
½ t baking soda
2 t xanthan gum
½ c butter
½ c palm shortening
1 c raw sugar or Lakanto Golden Monkfruit Sweetener
1 t salt
2 t vanilla
6 eggs + 2 egg yolks
1 c coconut milk
2 t lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
¼ c maple syrup
Process:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Take out all of the ingredients and allow them to come to room temperature.
Grease two 9’’ round cake pans with butter or palm shortening and set aside.
Whisk together the first five ingredients and set aside.
Combine coconut milk, apple cider vinegar, and maple syrup. Set aside.
Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, cream the butter and shortening with the sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Beat until it becomes fluffy.
Beat the eggs into the bowl in two additions, stopping to scrape the bowl in between.
Next, you can begin to add the dry and wet ingredients in a few additions, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop to scrape the bowl as necessary.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes. Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, and then turn cakes out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Once cake is completely cool, you can enjoy it "naked", top it with frosting and/or my Tart Cherry Sauce. If you want to be "extra", you can add some dark chocolate shavings as well!
Notes: If you’re making cupcakes, bake them for only 18-22 minutes. *If you can’t tolerate milk products, you can sub ghee for the butter. Just toss it in the freezer to harden for 30 minutes prior to using. *If eggs are not in your diet, you can sub in 7 flax eggs, although the taste and texture are best with real eggs.
About this Recipe: vegan* dairy free* egg free* AIP coconut free* nut free vegetarian gluten free
* indicates that substitutions can be made to fit this category