Mexican Chocolate Coffee Cake
December 28, 2011 in Cakes and Cupcakes, Decadent Desserts, Muffins and Coffee Cakes
The inspiration for this cake came from my daughter’s second birthday cake. I baked Elena Amsterdam’s chocolate layer cake with coconut flour recipe and frosted with a lacto-paleo chocolate fudge frosting (the kind that is mostly chocolate with a little cream and butter for good measure). Elena’s recipe produces a delightful spongy cake with a mild chocolate flavor. Combined with the intense flavor of the frosting, my daughter’s birthday cake was a resounding success. But, it got me thinking. What if I could develop a chocolate cake that had all the lovely spongy texture of this cake but enough chocolate flavor to stand on its own without frosting. This took quite a bit of tinkering and many iterations to boost the chocolate flavor sufficiently without giving up too much on the texture. The chocolate flavor is enhanced by the cayenne and cinnamon which give this cake a delightful “kick”.
A note on cocoa: There are three different “types” of cocoa that you can buy in stores. The easiest to find is “Alkalized”, also called “Dutch-Processed”. This cocoa powder has a darker color (and is considered easier to bake with) but also has many of the anti-oxidants stripped out in the alkalizing process. Avoiding this type of cocoa can be a challenge because it’s not always labeled, but most of the grocery store brands are alkalized. Look for either “Natural” or “Raw” Cacao Powder
Ingredients:
- 6 Eggs
- ½ cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
- 1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp Coconut Flour
- 1/3 cup Cacao Powder
- 3 oz Unsweetened Chocolate, melted (100%)
- ½ cup Blackstrap Molasses
- ½ cup Honey
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper, to taste
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Line 5”X9” loaf pan with wax paper. Grease wax paper with coconut oil.
2. Sift cocoa, coconut flour, cinnamon, cayenne, salt and baking soda into a small bowl.
3. In a food processor or blender, combine eggs, honey, molasses, and vanilla. Pulse a few times to beat together. Add melted coconut oil and chocolate and process/blend for 1 minute.
4. Add dry ingredients to food processor, and pulse to combine.
5. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 1 hour (not a very forgiving cake if you burn it, so you might want to test for doneness with a toothpick at the 55 minute mark).
6. Let cool completely in the pan. Remove from pan and carefully remove wax paper. Enjoy!
Do you need help finding any ingredients? Check out Important Pantry Items for the Paleo Baker.
Mmm…this looks delightful! Can’t beat spicy and chocolate together, really.
Hi, the recipe doesn’t say what to do with the 3 oz of unseetened chocolate.
Sorry! It should say melted, which I think got missed out in an edit.
That’s exactly what I did with it. My husband loved his birthday cake – he says best cake ever. I served it with homemade coconut milk cinnamon ice cream. It was delicious. Thanks!
I made this recipe a few days ago. My family gobbled it up and asked for more! My chocolate craving was satisfied and my son’s nightly question “Can I have dessert?”, was answered with a resounding “Yes!”. Thank you!
I loved this recipe and so did my son. I honestly had not had cake for over two years and this was the first. This was probably also my first attempt at baking, ever. So, I have to say that this was really a success.
I made this as a two layer round cake, and frosted it with Nourishing Kitchen’s sweet potato frosting – basically a buttercream with white Japanese sweet potatoes, lots of butter and maple syrup. It was gorgeous and tasted sophisticated but wonderful! The only thing is it is is definitely easy to overcook, and the one layer that I cooked just right cracked easily (no biggie, I put on extra frosting!)
You’re a scientist – how about some metric measurements?
I was super-bored at work:
6 Eggs
118ml or 109g Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
97ml or 5½ tbsp or 40g Coconut Flour
80ml Cacao Powder
85g Unsweetened Chocolate, melted (100%)
118ml or 165g Blackstrap Molasses
118ml or 160g Honey
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 160C. Line 13cm x 23cm loaf pan with wax paper.
Lots of love,
Morten
Oh, and that was 30g of cacao. But these were all look-up values so they might not be that precise. I haven’t checked but I did it once with the weight measurements and then I went and got some measuring spoons and did it again. The first one where I used the scales was more moist and my favourite. But maybe I just screwed up somehow when I did it with the measuring spoons / cups. I’m not that good at counting to be honest. I get distracted.
I made this last night and I can’t believe how well it turned out!! I didn’t include cayenne or other spice. For a paleo recipe, the texture was amazingly cake-like. Very, very impressed. Great job!!!
I hate molasses and don’t have any. Could I substitute maple syrup, do you think?
Yes. Honey would work too.