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Best Chocolate Cake Recipe

This chocolate cake is easy to make, it’s moist and melts in the mouth, but has no milk, no butter, and not eggs. It’s not low carb, but it lacks a lot of other things you don’t want.

Ingredients

Dry
2 cups cake flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder – sifted to avoid clumping
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet
1 heaping tablespoon ground flax seeds placed in a small bowl with 1/3 cup of water (this is your egg replacer)
1/2 cup apple sauce, unsweetened
1/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup water or any non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Method

Heat oven to 350º and grease 2 9-inch pans

  1. Whisk the wet ingredients until they are homogeneous and have the consistency of eggs.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients until the cocoa and flour are well incorporated and any cocoa balls are broken. This will reduce the number of lumps in your batter. Make a well in the middle
  3. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the well and whisk from the inside to bring in the dry ingredients slowly to avoid lumps
  4. Whisk gently until the batter is well mixed. Overmixing strengthens the gluten and will result in a deflated cake after baking. If the batter is too hard, add a little bit of water but 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time
  5. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 and bake for 10 more minutes. The cake is done when an inserted knife comes out clean.

Cool for 3 to 5 hours before assembling and icing.
If the cake rises and has a dome, cut the top off to make it flat, so the cakes can be assembled without a gap in the middle.

NOTE: Instead of icing in the middle of the cake, you may warm up ⅓ cup of raspberry jam and spread it on the bottom layer of the cake for a delicious raspberry filling. Chose organic, high quality raspberry jam without additives or high fructose corn syrup.

Ganache Icing

Ingredients
2 tablespoons Earth Balance
2 bars Ghirardelli dark chocolate 70% cocoa or higher (any other brand would do but Ghirardelli delivers the best results)
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup rum

Temper the chocolate au Bain Marie. DO NOT MICROWAVE

Method
Put water in a large saucepan and bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to a very low simmer
Place the chocolate, broken into pieces, in a ceramic or metal bowl (do not use glass). Put the bowl in the simmering water but make sure the water comes only ¼th of the way on the side of the bowl so the water doesn’t splash into the chocolate as you stir.

Keep the water at an even temperature—very hot but not boiling. Keep stirring the chocolate pieces until completely melted. Add the powdered sugar, and mix until incorporated. Add the butter and continue stirring until completely melted.

Remove from heat and stir in the rum, vanilla and almond extracts. Continue mixing until the icing is slightly cool and thick.

Ice the cake and serve garnished with berries.

NOTE: A double-boiler is ideal for tempering chocolate.