The Ultimate Chocolate Cake Made With Fresh Milled Flour
Prepare to indulge in this ultimate chocolate cake made with fresh milled flour. This heavenly confection is the perfect balance of rich, moist, velvety chocolate and the nutrition from freshly milled flour. Each and every bite is a symphony of flavors and textures that will transport your taste buds to new heights of bliss. So, if you love chocolate, then get ready to embark on a baking adventure that will redefine your chocolate cake experience. Also, I make this recipe with unsifted Freshly milled soft white wheat flour.
Can You Make A Moist, Soft Cake Using Unsifted Fresh Milled Flour?
Yes! You can make a moist, soft, and decadent chocolate cake using unsifted fresh milled flour. Traditionally, sifting has been a crucial step to achieve lightness and uniformity in baked goods. However, I ventured outside of the box to see if I could make a delicious cake while leaving the nutritious parts (the bran & germ) of the wheat flour in! Also, I didn’t want to sacrifice taste and texture. So, let me be the first to reveal to you the secret to unsifted chocolate cake made with freshly milled wheat!
Why Should I Use Fresh Milled Flour To Make A Cake
Unlike commercially processed flour, fresh milled flour retains its natural oils, nutrients, and distinct flavors. Also, fresh milled grains give a depth of flavor & texture to your cakes that is unmatched with processed flour, all while still keeping a moist and tender crumb. Why not enjoy the best of both worlds: a cake that is not only more nutritious, but also incredibly delicious. So, it’s safe to say that when it comes to baking with fresh milled flour, you can indeed have your cake and eat it too! LOL Pardon the pun, but it’s hard to resist considering the topic!
If chocolate cake is not your jam, no worries I have a delicious moist yellow cake with two buttercream options! Chocolate or Vanilla! HERE
Ingredients To Make This Fresh Milled Flour Chocolate Cake
- 1&3/4-2 cups Fresh Milled Soft Flour 210g (I milled a heavy 1 cup of soft white wheat berries to get this) (I did not sift)
- 1/4 cup potato starch 32g (or cornstarch)
- 1/2 cup melted butter 113g
- 1/4 cup avocado oil (or olive oil) 54g
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 2/3 cup brown sugar 150g
- 3 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup yogurt 120g (could use sour cream, kefir, or buttermilk)
- 1/2 cup whole milk 120g
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder 64g
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Ingredients For The Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup softened butter 230g
- 3 cups powdered sugar 360g
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder 60g
- 1-4 TBSP whole milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions How To Make Fresh Milled Flour Chocolate Cake
- Firstly, mill the flour.
- Then, add Potato Starch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder into your flour. Wisk these dry ingredients together, then set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add melted butter, oil, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, vinegar, yogurt, and milk. Mix until wet ingredients are combined.
- Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir these together to combine. You want it smooth and incorporated, but not over mixed. Do this part by hand, not with a mixer.
- Let your batter sit for about 15 minutes while the oven preheats and you prepare your baking pans.
- Preheat oven to 350* F
- Prepare your cake pans. (I sprayed a decent amount of oil in my two 8 inch round cake pans. Then, I cut a piece of parchment paper in a circle to line to bottom of the pan. Spray the top of the paper as well.)
- Evenly distribute batter into both round cake pans. I used Two- 8 inch cake pans. (For Different size pans, baking times will vary.)
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Keep an eye on it, you don’t want to overbake or it will be dry.
- Allow cakes to cool in the pan for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Then, turn each cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. (you can also put them in the fridge at this point if you wish.
- Make The Frosting While the cakes are cooling
Instructions on Making The Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- In a stand mixer (or hand mixer) beat softened butter on high for about 3 minutes until it is light and creamy. Scrape down bowl as needed during this.
- Then, add half the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, salt, and 1 TBSP whole milk.
- Start SLOW and begin mixing.
- Once incorporated, turn speed up to high to whisk. It should get light and fluffy.
- Slowly add in more powdered sugar until you reach the desired level of sweetness. Scrape down sides of the bowl a few times during this.
- If it seems too thick you can add more whole milk to thin. (a little goes a long way!)
- Lastly, enjoy!!!
Baking Pan Alternatives
I baked my cakes in two 8×8 round cake pans. However, you can bake them in other baking dishes. It is important to note that these are just guidelines, and you still need to check your cakes for doneness.
- 9×9 Round Pans: bake for about 5-10 minutes less.
- 9×13 Rectangle Pan: bake for 5-10 minutes longer.
- Cupcakes: bake for about 18-22 minutes.
How To Store A Cake Without A Cake Keeper
Since I travel the US in my RV with my family, my storage space is limited. This means, I don’t have room for a cake keeper or cake carrier to use only a few times a year. Although my family would probably love to gobble this cake up all in one day, I still need a solution for storing my cake, especially if we have a travel day coming up! I had to think on my feet on this one, because we did have a travel day soon after I made this very cake!
So, I Matt and I had to get creative! We decided upon a mixing bowl upside down over the cake. The cake sat on one of our dinner plates that somehow fit perfectly under that mixing bowl! Success! Now, what do we do with it tomorrow morning when we pack up the RV and travel to a different destination. Our solution was to put that whole cake, plate, and inverted mixing bowl into our microwave…..close the door….. and say a little prayer! Well, don’t you know, even with all those bumps and potholes across this great nation, it made it unscathed!
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Checkout Some Of My Other Recipes
Yellow Cake with 2 Frosting options!
Double Chocolate White Chip Cookies
Chocolate Peppermint Sourdough Cupcakes
Fresh Milled Flour Recipe Index
Chocolate Cake Made With Unsifted Fresh Milled Flour
Equipment
- 2 8 inch round cake pans
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake Ingredients
- 1&3/4 – 2 cups Fresh Milled Soft Flour 210g I milled a heavy 1 cup of soft white wheat berries to get this (I did not sift)
- 1/4 cup potato starch 32g or cornstarch
- 1/2 cup melted butter 113g
- 1/4 cup avocado oil or olive oil 54g
- 1 cup sugar 200g
- 2/3 cup brown sugar 150g
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1 TBSP Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 cup yogurt 120g could use sour cream, kefir, or buttermilk
- 1/2 cup whole milk 120g
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder 64g
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
- 1 cup 1 cup softened butter 230g
- 3 cups Powdered sugar 360g
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder 60g
- 1-4 TBSP whole milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Instructions To Make The Chocolate Cake
- Firstly, mill the flour.
- Add Potato Starch, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder into your flour. Wisk these dry ingredients together, then set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add melted butter, oil, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, vinegar, yogurt, and milk. Mix until wet ingredients are combined.
- Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Stir these together to combine. You want it smooth and incorporated, but not over mixed. Do this part by hand, not with a mixer.
- Let your batter sit for about 15 minutes while the oven preheats and you prepare your baking pans.
- Preheat oven to 350* F
- Prepare your cake pans. (I sprayed a decent amount of oil in my two 8 inch round cake pans. Then, I cut a piece of parchment paper in a circle to line to bottom of the pan. Spray the top of the paper as well.)
- Evenly distribute batter into both round cake pans. I used Two- 8 inch cake pans.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Keep an eye on it, you don’t want to overbake or it will be dry.
- Allow cakes to cool in the pan for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Then, turn each cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. (you can also put them in the fridge at this point if you wish.
- Make The Frosting While the cakes are cooling.
Instructions To Make The Chocolate Buttercream
- In a stand mixer (or hand mixer) beat softened butter on high for about 3 minutes until it is light and creamy. Scrape down bowl as needed during this.
- Add half the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, salt, and 1 TBSP whole milk.
- Start SLOW and begin mixing.
- Once incorporated, turn speed up to high to whisk. It should get light and fluffy.
- Slowly add in more powdered sugar until you reach the desired level of sweetness. Scrape down sides of the bowl a few times during this. If it seems too thick you can add more whole milk to thin. (a little goes a long way!)
Video
Notes
*This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. But, I will only suggest items I actually Love and Have Used!
this is the Bomb
Thank you!
I’m making this NOW!. I’m in my 15 rest period. Could this be used in a small pound cake pan? I’m sharing so I’m using 2 8in aluminum pans and I’ll make my Aunt Cindy’s pour over chocolate frosting. I just got my mill and was sooo disappointed with the 18-20 cups of wheat I messed up on Tuesday, I HAD to make something today. Pray with me that this turns out as intended. I’ll let ya know. Thank you for this resource @
I haven’t tried it in the pound cake pan. I would assume it should work, but the bake time would need to be longer. Just keep checking it with a toothpick to see when it’s done! Aunt Cindy’s pour over chocolate sounds amazing! I hope you love it!
Do you think I could turn this into a marble cake by adding the cocoa as a paste at the end to a separated batter?
Quite possibly, but I have not tried that. Let me know if you do! I am working on perfecting a yellow cake in the future, but not sure when I will have that out and ready to go. But, if you add the cocoa at then end. I would make the whole batter, then take out 1/2 and mix the cocoa in that.
Baked my marble cake today using your chocolate cake recipe. I pulled about 1/3 of the batter and added 1/3 C cocoa plus a couple teaspoons of milk to that batter. I need to get some 8” pans, because my 9” doesn’t give much height, but crumb and taste are good. I also cut back on the sugars a bit, because my daughter is trying to be more healthy without giving up on sweets completely, and the 4 year old will not know the difference. I feel maybe a bit more vanilla would be nice, but this is a keeper. My son in law will get the chocolate recipe with peanut butter frosting for his birthday.
I will be watching for your white or yellow recipe!
That is awesome! Thank you for letting me know! Chocolate with peanut butter frosting would be my daughter’s choice! yum!
Made this today and it was AMAZING! It was way better than I expected. I didn’t have cornstarch so I substituted it with arrowroot powder. I also used about 1/3 cup less sugar. I weighed my wheat berries before milling and went with the weight of that. I did also measure the flour and it was way off (it measured 2 1/3 cup) but I stuck with the wheat berry weight, in which I am so thankful for. Both the cake AND the icing worked out perfectly. This will be added to our favourite recipes!
I am so happy to hear that! I also prefer to bake by weight, but I write my recipes for other styles of bakers as well. I will look into the amount. Thanks so much! Happy Baking!
I recipe tested this today for my soon to be 2 year old’s party next weekend. I’m blown away. You’d never know it was whole wheat. So light! The texture and crumb were amazing. Perfect level of sweetness for a chocolate cake. Your everyday sandwich bread and pizza dough are weekly staples in our house, and reading your instructions has really helped me alter recipes that are made with store bought flour to better work with the freshly ground. I’m excited to continue trying recipes and techniques from your blog!
Yay! I am so happy to hear that! Nice job! Thank you so much! Happy Baking!
My cake fell in the middle. Did I whip my eggs too much?
Also if is very fragile/crumbly and hard to frost.
The taste is great, tho!
There could be a few reasons the cake fell in the middle, could be over aerated or under baked or the oven was opened during baking. But, even if it falls it will still be delicious, just frost over it! lol. One trick to getting the frosting on is popping it in the freezer for a bit for the outside to firm up. Hope that helps!
I made first time, was AMAZING!!! Think I only used 2 lg eggs. I freaked out cause I couldn’t find recipe. Soo glad it’s Yours!!!🥰 Made my own Healthier frosting with coconut oil recipe…Yummy! Ty Again. How many days should it be eaten in?
Yay! I am so happy to hear it was a success! Nice job! Covered on the counter it should last 3-4 days. If longer, I would recommend slicing, and freezing.
Can you leave this out on the counter to store or does it need to be refrigerated?
I store it covered on the counter for 2-3 days. For longer storage, I will slice and freeze the day it is baked (When it is still fresh)
What type of avocado oil do you use please?
I go through different brands. Sam’s club has a good one, and I have purchased some at Aldi as well.
Thank you. You are such a wonderful source of support to those of us who are just starting out.
Thank you so much! I am happy to hear it has been helpful! Happy Baking!
I’m about to make this for my daughter’s birthday, but I was wondering if I should omit the vinegar if using buttermilk?
Yes, you can just use the buttermilk instead of the vinegar and milk. Great question. Let me know how it turns out! Happy Birthday to your daughter!
Kara, I’ve made this chocolate cake recipe as a cake and as muffins too many times to count. It’s always perfect. I’d like to make a cinnamon swirl coffee cake. Since you add potato starch to this recipe, do you think adding that to a coffee cake recipe (I’m using your all-purpose flour substitute)would help to make the cake part more like cake, which is what I want? I didn’t see a coffee cake on your site or I’d use that for sure!
Thank you,
Sharon
A coffee cake is typically slightly denser than a cake like this chocolate cake, so I don’t think you would need to add any starch. I have an apple coffee cake recipe which I have made without the apples as well if interested. https://grainsinsmallplaces.net/coffee-cake-made-with-fresh-milled-flour/
Silly me! I’ve made that apple breakfast cake and it was great. I didn’t think about it for what I’m looking for right now–a cinnamon swirl coffee cake–not a fruit breakfast cake. But when you just suggested it, I looked at the recipe, and I’m going to try that. I’m an author, and I have a couple of other authors coming tomorrow for brunch. I’ve got my everything planned, but I needed a cinnamon coffee cake to round things out. Thanks Kara, I can always count on you.
Yay! I am glad I could help! We loved it without the apples too, and that is exactly what we did was swirl the crumble topping throughout! I have been working on writing a cookbook with my recipes, so maybe you can point me in the direction of a place to print them???
Kara, I apologize for not letting you know sooner (you always respond so quickly) how much your coffee cake recipe, without using the apples, was a hit with my writer friends. They loved it!
Now about your cookbook. YAY! Woohoo! It’s been your teaching style, tips, and recipes that have made my FMF journey successful and a joy. Truly, you’re my go-to for recipes. I watched your videos over and over while contemplating if I should dive into the FMF way of life. You convinced me! And I’m all in. I’ll buy your cookbook the minute it’s available.
Kara, I write Christian Fiction, so I’m not familiar with cookbook publishing, but I’m more than happy to talk to you further about publishing, what I do, etc. Just email me at the address I use to contact you! Can’t wait to chat!
I am so happy to hear it was a hit! YAY! Thank you so much for your support! I am glad to hear it was helpful! I am not an author by any means, but I would love to have something to offer in hand. I prefer to use a written recipe over a recipe on a screen, so I figured there had to be more people out there like me too, right? lol
Thanks again!
I apologize for not telling you sooner (you always respond so quickly) how much my writing friends loved you’re apple coffee cake with the filling swirled in — no apples.
Now about your cookbook. YAY. Woohoo. I’ll buy it the minute it comes out. Kara, your teaching style, recipes, tips and techniques, and YOU are what has made my journey into FMF successful and fun. I watched over and over your videos while deciding if I wanted to dive into the FMF lifestyle. You convinced me, and now I’m all in. Your recipes are my go-to!
I write Christian Fiction, but I do know there are a multitude of cookbook publishers (which I’m sure you know). I’d be more than happy to talk to you about publishing and what I do. Just email me at the address I’ll use to post this comment. I look forward to chatting.
I think this came in twice, but I did send a message just now! 😊
Can I add chocolate chips without it impacting the final result? Thanks! 😊
Yes! That would add a nice texture and flavor element. 😊
What setting on the mill do you use for grinding the wheat berries for cake? Pastry or Bread or somewhere in between closer to one than the other? This looks delicious!
Thanks!
I mill fine for pretty much everything, except for cream of wheat. Here is a short video of me adjusting my mill to get fine flour. https://youtube.com/shorts/GNOt93woIS8?si=o9tz8KUi5hXpvG8M
Thank you! Can’t wait to try it!
Yay! Let me know what you think!