Recipe Collection: Chocolate Cake

We love chocolate cake with vanilla frosting (you’ll get the frosting next week).  I make chocolate cake or brownies a lot, frankly — 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 all around.  Everyone liked it.

For a real “treat,” use unbleached white flour (I’ve used it a bit 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 sauce, fresh fruit — or wait until next week to try it so you can use real buttercream (which uses no powdered sugar at all!).

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. maple syrup
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 c. cocoa powder
• 2 c. unbleached flour or sprouted flour
• 1 c. milk

Directions:

Grab your little helper.

Add the butter to your bowl.

Add your maple syrup.

Stir it together as best you can.  Then, add your eggs.

Stir this together.  Add a little vanilla — I forgot when we did it this time.  Then, add your cocoa powder.

Add your salt and baking powder.

Stir together well.  I used a mixer to beat it here, before returning it to the table for my daughter to stir.  Add flour (1/2 of it, then milk, then the other 1/2 — I don’t have a picture of adding milk).

Pour the cake into two 8″ round pans, or 8″x8″ square pans.  A 9×13 would work, or it should make 18 – 24 cupcakes.

Bake at 350 for 25 – 30 minutes (test for doneness by sticking a toothpick in the center — if it comes out clean, it’s done).

**This post has been entered in Real Food Wednesday.**

How do you top your chocolate cake?