Name: Basic Dark Chocolate Cake {Yummy Healthy Way} Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 330 g cake flour, homemade or store-bought; 2 eggs; 80 g avocado oil; 300 g - 350 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred, use 300 g for semi-sweet; 3/4 tsp salt, such as Himalayan pink salt; 2 tsp baking soda; 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar; 1 tbsp white vinegar; 3 tsp (1 tbsp) vanilla extract; 80 g cacao powder organic raw preferred; 330 g whole milk; 330 g water

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Basic Dark Chocolate Cake featuring homemade cake flour, organic raw cacao powder, and avocado oil is so moist, yummy, and nutritiously healthy.

Eat as is, with homemade whipped cream, or use it as the chocolate cake base for this nutritiously yummy Dark Chocolate Cake with Greek Yogurt Chocolat Frosting.

Basic Dark Chocolate Cake with Homemade Whipped Cream

Cocoa Powder, Dutch-processed Cocoa Powder vs. Cacao Powder

What is the difference between Cocoa Powder vs. Cacao Powder?

Both cocoa powder and cacao powder are from cacao beans, which are the seeds of the fruit from cacao trees. These ancient tropical plants are native to South America. People in the Amazon area have been cultivating cacao trees since 5,000 years ago.

In a nutshell, when processing cacao beans using high temperatures, they become Cocoa Powder. When processing cacao beans in extreme higher temperatures, their color turns darker and becomes dutch processed cocoa powder. When cold-pressing the raw cacao beans into powder, it becomes this raw cacao powder I used in this recipe.

Why Cacao Powder is better for you?

Organic cold-pressed cacao powder is a superfood substitute for all recipes calling for cocoa powder. Being not processed with heat at all, they naturally contain and preserve all the impressive nutrients cacao beans have to offer:

Cacao beans’ fiber promotes healthy digestion. They are also rich in flavonoids, which are loaded with antioxidant agents. These antioxidant substances help fight off free radicals, which leads to the total well-being of our body systems.

It is worth mentioning three of the most prominent health benefits of cacao powder:

The first is to help lower blood pressure. The flavonoids found in cacao powder are extremely effective in supporting lowering hypertension.
The second is to mitigate type 2 diabetes.
Last but not least is its anti-cancer power. Researchers believe that the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties found in cacao powder have the potential to prevent cancers.

How to make a Basic Dark Chocolate Cake Yummy and Healthy at home?

The first thing first is to use organic cacao powder for the basic dark chocolate cake

Cold-pressed organic raw cacao powder is so rich in flavor, and color and loaded with extremely healthy nutrients too.

The second is to use homemade cake flour from organic all-purpose flour if you can

It is super easy to turn your favorite organic non-bleached all-purpose flour into homemade cake flour. Simply steam for 10 minutes. See here for more details.

How To Homemade Cake Flour — Homemade Cake Flour Using All-Purpose Flour

The third is to

Last but not least is to use an electric hand mixer to cream the cake batter

An electric hand mixer is a very handy tool to cream everything together for a perfect cake batter. This is especially important for the first stage creaming process, which is to blend egg yolks, avocado oil, melted butter, and milk together.

dark chocolate cake batter — Dark Chocolate Cake Batter

Basic Dark Chocolate Cake {Yummy Healthy Way} Recipe

Yield: 12 servings

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Additional Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Basic Dark Chocolate Cake using simple ingredients featuring homemade cake flour, organic raw cacao powder, and avocado oil is so moist, yummy, and nutritiously healthy.

Ingredients

330 g cake flour, homemade or store-bought
2 eggs
80 g avocado oil
300 g - 350 g cane sugar, organic unrefined preferred, use 300 g for semi-sweet
3/4 tsp salt, such as Himalayan pink salt
2 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp white vinegar
3 tsp (1 tbsp) vanilla extract
80 g cacao powder organic raw preferred
330 g whole milk
330 g water

Instructions

Gather and Prepare Ingredients:

Measure and add dry ingredients to a large bowl - cake flour, baking soda, and salt
Measure and add the cane sugar to a bowl.
Add wet ingredients to a large mixing bowl - avocado oil, vanilla extract, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, and half of the sugar
Add milk, water, half of the sugar, and cacao powder to a saucepan. Patiently whisk gently until everything is fully blended.

Cook a Chocolate Mixture:

Turn the heat to medium and heat the saucepan with the chocolate mixture while stirring and blend using a heat-resistant silicon spatula until it reaches a boil. Chocolate tends to form and dry inside the wall of the saucepan. Scrape the wall using the spatula from time to time.
Turn off the heat, stir to let off the steam, and set it aside to cool down.

Make Dark Chocolate Cake Batter:

Use a hand-held mixer to blend the wet ingredients in the large mixing bowl until fully blended and smooth. Gently slap the mixing bowl on the kitchen countertop to get rid of the bubbles.
Once the chocolate mixture is cooled down a bit little, add it to the large mixing bowl. Use the hand-held mixer to blend everything until fully blended and smooth.
Sift the dry ingredients from the large bowl and add to the large mixing bowl. Do it in multiple batches. Sift a small amount of flour at a time making it easier to fold the flour into the batter. Use a wide long handle silicone spatula to continue to fold until flour is blended with the wet ingredients. Remember not to overwork the flour and only use fold motion.

Bake the Cake:

This recipe is for two 8-inch round cake pans or one 9x13-inch rectangle glass dish.
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
If using 8-inch cake pans, Layer 8-inch round non-bleached parchment paper inside of the 8-inch stainless steel cake pan. Press down along the bottom edge.
Pour the cake batter into the baking pan and divide it between the two pans. Gently shake to level the batter and get rid of the bubbles.
When the oven reaches 350 F, place the pans on the same level inside the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Turn off the oven, and let the cake rest for 10 minutes inside the oven to fully cook the middle part of the cake. Use a toothpick to insert into the center of the tallest part of the cake, it should come out clean.
Remove the cake and place them on a wire rack to cool down for about 20 minutes.
Use a butter knife to vertically separate the cake from the baking pans, then flip it upside down and place the cake onto a large plate and then remove the baking parchment paper.
You can use a cookie cutter to cut into small rounds and stack two layers of mini dark chocolate cake if you'd like to. Enjoy a yummy and healthy basic dark chocolate cake.

Notes

See here for a guided recipe on how to make cake flour using all-purpose flour.
The common vanilla extract on the market has a 35% alcohol level. If you have a vanilla super extract, then use much less, say 1/4 tsp for every 1 tsp of common vanilla extract.