This recipe for devil’s food cake makes for an absolutely sensational birthday treat.
In fact, devils food cake is almost always the birthday goodie my kids choose for me to make when their special day rolls around. Though recently, this recipe for chocolate chip cookie cake is giving it some good competition!
The inherent moistness of devils food cake combined with the nutrient-loaded butter frosting recipe I posted about recently makes for a melt in your mouth experience your child (and you) won’t soon forget and neither will the birthday party guests!
Homemade Devils Food Cake (traditional method)
This particular recipe for devils food cake varies from other recipes due to the fact that it is soaked in sour raw milk to improve digestibility, break down the gluten in the wheat, and improve nutrient absorption from the wonderfully nutritious, fresh flour you are using to make it.
Soaking is one of the three traditional ways our ancestral cultures prepared their grains. Â The great thing about traditional preparation of grains is that you eat far less when these foods are prepared this way because they are more filling and nutritious. When a food is more nutritious, you need to eat much less to feel full and feel satisfied for longer periods of time.
For those of you who try this devils food cake for yourselves, please email me to let me know how you like it!
Homemade Devils Food Cake Recipe (traditional method)
This traditional recipe for devils food cake is easy and uses only whole ingredients instead of buying the chemical and GMO loaded cakes from the supermarket. Suggesting recipe for frosting too.
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour freshly ground is best
- 3 cups whole milk yogurt or lightly soured raw milk
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup expeller pressed coconut oil
- 3 cups sucanat unrefined cane sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 3 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
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Sift the fresh flour and feed the discarded bran to chickens, ducks or other birds. Removing bran allows just a quick soak of the flour to be effective for improving digestibility and also increases the lightness of the cake considerably.
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Mix the sifted flour with the yogurt or soured raw milk, cover, and leave on the counter for about 7 hours. I usually mix the flour and the milk in the morning and make the cake in the afternoon.
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Blend in the remaining ingredients. Pour the devils food cake batter into 2 - 9x13 glass baking pans greased with expeller coconut oil dividing the batter equally between the 2 pans.
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Bake at 350F/177 C for about 30 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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Cool devils food cake completely and then remove one cake layer onto the cake serving platter and ice the top with raw butter frosting.
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Remove the second devils food cake layer and carefully place on top of the frosted cake layer. Cover the remaining cake with more butter frosting.
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Store devils food cake for up to 2 days in the microwave which makes the ideal, airtight pastry cabinet! After that, refrigerate any devils food cake leftovers (there probably won't be any).
Recipe Notes
Substitute 1 cup carob powder and 1 TBL chocolate extract for the cocoa powder if desired.
Substitute coconut sugar or date syrup for the sucanat if desired. Do not use honey, as baking with honey is not healthy.
Budget-wise tip: Using homemade vanilla extract is much less expensive than buying it.
More Healthy Cake Recipes!
Love making cake using traditional methods and ingredients? Try these other old fashioned recipes too.
thehealthyhomeeconomist via Facebook
Who needs Little Debbie’s?
Jennifer Dayley via Facebook
Oh gosh.
Laura
Perfect timing! I was going to check your site today to see if you had any cake recipes I could try for my daughter’s 1st birthday on Tuesday. I’ll be trying this one. Thanks!
Alexis
OOOMMMGGG I cant wait to make this!!!!! And random question….I just got my dehydrated milk kefir grains in the mail yesterday and Im in the process of trying to rehydrate to use…tonite I drained the culture from the old milk and put in new milk (they say to do this for 5-7 days). When I was looking for the culture, its like I could barely find it!!! When I got the culture it wasnt totally intact but I was hoping it would come together a little bit! I sifted through the milk as much as I could and scooped out whatever clumps I thought was the grains and put them all together in the new milk. Are the grains supposed to start out like this? I hope they didnt get broken up in the mail and now they’re ruined. What do you think?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
I would call or email the company and ask .. I have not ever attempted to rehydrate kefir grains before as I have just gotten fresh ones from a friend and they last for years and years.
Eliza
I have an assignment to do today and clearly now I cannot continue until I have baked this guy… thanks a lot, Sarah! :p
Can I just ask, is the cake incredibly sweet with the three cups of sucanet? Since I changed my diet for the better a few years back I find I really can’t handle extremely sweet desserts and usually halve the sweetener in standard recipes…
Thanks! x
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
This recipe makes a large, double layer cake intended for a birthday party so feel free to cut in half for sure!
Maria Carolina
Hi there this lloks delicious! Let me just say that I love love love your site, it has completely revolutionized the way I think about healthy eating. Anyway…I was wondering: if I buy wheat berries from my local bulk store and then grind it myself…is it fresh flour?
Sarah, TheHealthyHomeEconomist
Yes, that is perfect! Try to find a grain co-op to buy wheat berries in bulk though .. you will save a lot going this route. They store well in large buckets with gamma lids even in hot garages for long periods of time.
Trisha
Fantastic timing! My hubby LOVES chocolate cake and his birthday is tomorrow! He will be THRILLED to have a surprise homemade cake!
Thanks SO MUCH Sarah!
Janelle
Woohoo! This came right in time! My daughters birthday is on Monday and I’ve been searching for a cake to make. Do you think almond flour would work okay with this recipe? Thanks!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Never tried it with almond flour. If you give it a try, please let us know how it turns out!
Anna Whiteside
What do you recommend if I don’t have access to a grain mill or freshly ground flour? Your site has been so helpful! Got my first bottle of FCLO today, in fact! Thanks!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Just buy organic all purpose flour and put a grain mill on your wish list 🙂 You will love this cake when you make it with fresh flour for the first time!!
JMR
Cake makes me feel better after reading the last few articles you’ve posted. Thank you for something that doesn’t depress me. It looks delicious.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Homemade cake makes all things better!