Chocolate Coconut Flour Cake Sweetened w/ Honey

I was in a bit of a whimsical mood on this cake making day and Valentines day was on my mind. Out came the heart shaped cookie cutter and I had fun making some bite size pieces of cake.

This is one of those cakes I've been trying to master for a while. Frankly, I've been trying to figure out the best ways to use coconut flour in general. There has been a whole lot of trial and error and a whole lot more failure than successes, but that's how it goes sometimes. I happen to like challenges and I've been determined to come up with a chocolate coconut flour cake that can hold it's own next to one of those typical white flour cakes. Method is key to making this cake as it will make a drastic difference in how light the cake will turn out.


If you've never used coconut flour, I'd highly recommend trying it out. I purchase mine,  from Tropical Traditions. Actually I'm not sure who else even sells it.

When I originally started making this cake I was working with enough ingredients for only one layer. However, in this last attempt I split the batter in half between two pans and was very pleased with how it turned out. I haven't tried to put all the batter in one pan as of yet. It would likely work fine, I just question whether the cake might loose some of it's volume. The cake layers are not overly tall, so if you want a more typical cake with some height I'd recommend doubling this recipe and making 4 layers.

This is a dark and rich cake, but not overly sweet (that tends to be my style for baked goods), if you really prefer a sweet cake you could increase the honey by an additional 1/4 cup. For an icing, forgo the classic butter and powdered sugar frosting for a deliciously thick, homemade vanilla whip cream. It's the perfect companion.  For the pictures in this post, I baked the cake in two 8"x8" square pans. An 8" round would work too, but if you do a 9" round you'll probably want to check the cake after it has baked for about 20 minutes.


Note: I used cold eggs for this recipe, but the milk, honey and coconut oil should be room temperature or heated to lukewarm in a small pot. Honey and coconut oil must be liquid instead of solid, so heat them slightly if they are not. 

Who says you need to ice your cake, how about just fill it with some heavenly whip cream!

What You'll Need

2 - 1" high cake layers

For the Cake: 

4 eggs - cold

1/2 cup coconut oil in it's liquid form

3/4 cup honey - melted if it's solid

1 cup organic whole milk - room temperature or slightly warm

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt 

For the Whip Cream

2 cups organic, heavy cream

1/2 cup organic white sugar or 1/4 cup honey 

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

How You'll Do It

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line bottoms of two square or round cake pans with parchment, then thoroughly grease them and dust with cocoa powder. 

2. In a large bowl whisk or beat the 4 cold eggs until very light and frothy, 3-5 minutes. 

3. In a second smaller bowl, stir together oil, honey, milk and vanilla. While mixer is still running, at about medium speed, slowly pour in liquid ingredients. Beat everything together for approx. 2 more minutes.

4. In a third bowl, mix together coconut flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Turn mixer down to low and gradually add dry ingredients and continue to mix until just combined.

5. Scrape down sides of bowl making sure all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Divide batter between the two prepared cake pans. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes on center rack. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into center of cakes. If it comes out clean they're done.

6. Immediately remove cakes from pans and allow to cool. Frost as desired.

7. The whip cream ingredients are just a general guideline. Use more or less depending on how much whip cream you want. The amounts I've included above should be enough for "icing" this cake. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until a soft, but thick whip cream has formed. Be careful to not over beat mixture or it will begin to become grainy in texture.

I cut 2" square pieces out of my cake and then cut each layer in half (so 2 squares turned into 4, each layer a little less than 1/2" thick) to make a petite four layer cake. Then I cut the 2" squares into 1/4ths making cake "tea sandwiches" or to me the perfect amount for one serving.

This is one of those "do as I say, not as I do" type of things. I did not listen to my own rule of lining my cake pan with parchment. Now while typically the cake should come out of the pan without parchment, the kiddos called my attention from the kitchen just as I pulled the cake out of the oven and it ended up cooling in the pan. In the end only part of my cake popped out correctly, leaving me with some cake crumbs and pieces. Now I'm not going to pitch cake that still tastes perfectly good, just because it doesn't look quite as nice. So I grabbed a bowl and layered crumbled cake and whip cream and to no surprise it was still equally delicious!

 Hearth and Soul Hop-volume 34!