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Sulfite free dessert - delicious chocolate layer cake
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Rich Chocolate Layer Cake with Homemade Chocolate Icing

A deliciously rich one-bowl chocolate layered cake of your dreams. Made with organic ingredients, this chocolate cake is a sulfite free delight that seems too good to be true. Top it off with a sweet, creamy homemade chocolate icing and you'll have the perfect cake for every celebration!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Homemade Chocolate Icing1 hour
Total Time1 hour 40 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: cake, chocolate, chocolatecake, Sulfite-free, sulfite-free desserts, vegandesserts
Servings: 15 people

Equipment

  • 1 Large bowl
  • 1 Medium bowl
  • 1 Saucepan
  • 1 Handmixer

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake

  • 3 cups All purpose flour organic, unbleached
  • 2 cups Sugar organic
  • 1/2 cup Cacao Powder Not processed with alkali*
  • 2 tsps Baking Soda
  • 1/2 tsp Sea salt
  • 2 tbsps Fresh lemon juice
  • 12 tbsps Melted butter
  • 2 tsps Vanilla
  • 2 cups Water

Chocolate Icing

  • 2/3 cup Sugar
  • 1/3 cup All purpose flour organic, unbleached
  • 3 tbsps Cacao powder not processed with alkali*
  • 1 cup Whole milk or almond milk
  • 2 sticks Butter softened
  • 1 pinch Sea salt
  • 1 tsp Vanilla
  • 1 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips organic

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350° and grease two 8" or 9" cake pans (I prefer to use some melted butter, but any oil will work).
  • In one large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cacao powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
  • Make 3 separate indents in the mix and add the fresh squeezed lemon juice to one, vanilla to the next, and melted butter to the last.
  • Finally pour the two cups of water over the top of all the ingredients and begin to stir from the top down.
  • When the cake batter is smooth and creamy, pour half into one cake pan and the remaining into the other.
  • Bake for 25-30 minutes (depending on the oven). The best practice is to start with 25 then check on the cakes by sticking a toothpick or fork into the center and checking if the inside of the cake is dry. If not, bake until dry!

Homemade Chocolate Icing

  • Place a medium sized saucepan on the stove over low to medium heat.
  • Sift the sugar, flour, and cacao powder together in the saucepan, then add in the milk and mix well.
  • Continue to stir the mixture occasionally until a pudding begins to form. The mixture will continue to thicken (this is when you want to stir the mixture more actively). Once the mixture has thickened, pour it into a bowl and place in the fridge.
  • While the pudding mixture is cooling, melt the cup of chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Then let the chocolate chip mixture sit and cool while you begin the next step.
  • Use a hand mixer to beat together the softened butter, sea salt, and vanilla in a medium sized bowl. Mix until fluffy.
  • When the pudding has cooled entirely, pour (more like scoop) it into the butter and use the mixer to beat together.
  • Finally, add in the cooled melted chocolate chips and mix everything together one more time.
  • The icing should be a rich, chocolatey buttercream that is smooth and easy to spread. You can leave it in the fridge until you're ready to ice the cake.

Assembling the chocolate cake

  • Start by removing one of the cooled cakes from the pan and placing it onto a flat surface (plate, cake dish, serving platter, etc.) Then ice this cake completely making sure there is a heavy layer of icing on top.
  • Remove the second cake from it's pan and place on top of the first. Then ice the cake entirely.

Notes

*This recipe is for a layered cake. For a single cake, half all of the ingredients - including the icing.
*The cake does not need to be refrigerated but should be covered as best as possible and stored in a cool room.
*When making the icing, it's best to ensure both the pudding and melted chocolate are cooled almost entirely before mixing with the butter. Otherwise the butter will melt and the texture will be too liquidy to fluff together.