Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

Compliments of: Heavenly Homemakers

Yield: 12-15 servings

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2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/3 cups sucanat
1/3 cup cocoa powder  

1 tsp baking powder  

1/2 tsp baking soda  

3 eggs  

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

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If you choose to soak your flour, mix the 2 cups of whole wheat flour with the 1 1/3 cups buttermilk. Cover and allow this mixture to soak overnight on the countertop. Add remaining ingredients and bake as directed. 

OR Mix dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil and buttermilk. Mix with beaters until batter is smooth and well mixed.

Butter two round cake pans or one 9×13 inch cake pan. 

Bake round cakes at 350° for 25-30 or a 9×13 inch cake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Allow the cakes to cool completely before removing them from the pans.

German Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Simple Healthy Tasty

1 1/2 cups soft wheat flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup sucanat
1/2 t salt
5 tbsp oil
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350'F.

Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, sucanat, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Make three deep holes in the mixture.  Pour oil in one, vinegar in another and vanilla in the last.  Pour water over all of it.  Mix well.

Pour into 9"x9" pan and bake for 30 minutes.  Cupcakes for 15 minutes.

Torta Caprese

a.k.a Flourless Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Food Lovers Odyssey

9 oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces (I didn't have dark chocolate, only semi sweet.  So I decreased the amount of sugar to 1 cup.)
1 cup butter
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tbsp almond extract
1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
1 ½ cups ground blanched and toasted almonds (see instructions below)
6 eggs, room temperature

Preheat an oven to 310° and line the bottom of a 9-inch spring-form pan with parchment paper.

Slowly melt the chocolate and butter over a double-boiler.  In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk together the melted chocolate mixture, the cocoa powder, almond extract and sugar until combined.  Add the ground almonds and whisk until combined.  Add the eggs one at a time, adding each egg after the first has been incorporated into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the spring-form pan.  Make sure the mixture is level and smooth on top.  Bake for 50-60 minutes.  Cool and serve with chocolate spirals or shavings and powdered sugar.  Serve with gelato or whipped cream.


Almonds
Blanch:  Boil some water and add desired amount of almonds.  Let almonds sit in water for 30 seconds.  Drain almonds and place on paper towels.  Pinch the almond at the fat end and the almond should pop right out!  Get the kids involved.  It was lots of fun!

Toast:  Heat oven to 350°.  Place almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake for 5 minute intervals stirring in between, until almonds are blonde to light brown in color.  They will smell divine!

Grind:  Pulse almonds in blender until somewhat fine in texture.

Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Topping

OK, so this is the easiest most delicious cake!  Nothing from scratch, but so yummy.

My sweet husband made this for me for Mothers Day this year.

1 chocolate cake mix

1 tub chocolate frosting

milk

1 tub whipped topping

1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries

Chunk of chocolate

Bake cake as directed on box in two round pans.  My husband actually used a greased springform pan which made it WAY easier to take out and it's all in one cake.  Nothing to layer!  If you do use 2 rounds, just use the chocolate frosting in between the layers. 

I always whip my frosting with a little milk.  It makes it lighter, fluffier and easier to spread.  And it goes further.  So put the frosting in a bowl and whip with an electric mixer with a tablespoon of milk at a time until it fluffs up.  Frost just the sides of the cake.

Blend the raspberries in a blender until smooth.  Add the raspberries to the whipped topping and gently mix together.  Top cake with raspberry topping.

Grate chocolate on top of cake and serve.

Pistachio Cake

Happy St Patty's Day!!  Sorry, I don't have a picture of the cake itself.  Just my cute daughter enjoying a piece!  I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com which took it from Jello.  It was REALLY good!

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Pistachio Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup oil

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

7 drops green food coloring (or until it looks green enough for you!)

2 cups powdered sugar

milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Place all ingredients except powdered sugar in large bowl.  Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute.  Beat on medium speed 4 minutes.

Pour into greased and floured 10-inch fluted tube or tube pan.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan.  Cool completely.

Mix powdered sugar and a few teaspoons of milk together in a bowl.  Add milk until it reaches drizzling consistency.  Drizzle frosting on cake and serve!

A Variation on a Theme

This is a variation on the brownie dessert. It's super easy, really good and a lighter texture.

1 box of chocolate cake mix
8 oz whipped topping
21 oz can cherry pie filling

Make cake according to directions. Let cool completely. Frost with whipped topping and top with cherry pie filling.

Coconut Cream Cake

I couldn't believe how awesome this cake is! WOW!! The flavors are perfect! The frosting isn't too sweet and with the added coconut flavor it is heavenly. I didn't have the extract, but I didn't miss it. Use the unsweetened coconut so it's not too sugary. If you don't have or can find the unsweetened coconut, I just rinsed the sweetened kind and slightly toasted it to dry it out quickly. It ended up having a nice toasted flavor and slight crunch. It blended nicely with the creaminess of the cake. I then grated some chocolate over the top. Words don't do this justice. You HAVE to try it!!

1 18.25 oz pkg white cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
½ tsp coconut extract
1 14 oz can coconut cream milk
1 3.5 oz pkg instant vanilla pudding
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 8 oz container frozen whipped topping, thawed
1½ cups unsweetened flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9” round cake pans.

In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, eggs, oil, water and coconut flavoring. Beat for 2 minutes and divide into pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

In a medium bowl, combine coconut cream with a few tablespoons of milk and stir until smooth and slightly runny. Let cake cool slightly and remove from pans. Line bottom and sides of cake with foil; poke holes in cake using chopsticks. Pour milk mixture over (reserving about 2 ounces), allowing it to soak into the cake. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

In a medium bowl, combine pudding mix with milk, vanilla and reserved coconut cream. Mix until smooth. Gently fold in whipped topping until no streaks remain.

Spread about 1 cup of frosting on top of one cake. Place second cake on frosting. Spread remaining frosting evenly over sides and top of cake. Press coconut onto sides and top of cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

So easy!! This was supposed to be brownies, but it turned out more like cake. I'm going to do a little experimenting and try to get brownies next time. The zucchini makes this so moist and you can't even tell it's in there. My husband had no idea. I took them to a BBQ and no one knew but said they were delicious! So don't tell anyone it's in there and you can have a more healthy cake!

2 cups zucchini, grated and drained
½ cup applesauce
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 ¼ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking soda
5 tbsp cocoa

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix zucchini, applesauce and vanilla. Sift in remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into a greased 9"x13" baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Cool completely, frost, and cut into squares!