Whole Wheat Chocolate Coffee Cake

Who does not love chocolate cake? Of course we all do but since long I have been thinking of making one with coffee. My first attempt was a disappointment since I followed a recipe that asked me to soak the cake in coffee syrup. Probably I went wrong somewhere and the coffee tasted pretty bitter in that form.

This time round I simply tried to play around with my chocolate cake recipe. And the results is rather good.  Like most of my cake recipes this one too contains whole wheat flour and vegetable oil. I have started using whole wheat ever since I decided to bake for Aseem. Children do love cakes and I could not see him have refined flour cakes all the time.

The reason I use vegetable oil in place of butter is that oil keeps the cake soft and moist, even when kept in the fridge. Unlike butter it does not become hard and retains its springy texture.

The sweetness of the cake may be bothersome for some as I use sugar less than regular cake recipes. In most cases a recipe calls for almost the same amount of sugar as flour. I keep it to half. Here I have made a small cake with half a cup of flour and one fourth cup of sugar. If you have a very sweet tooth you can easily increase the sugar quantity and get the desired sweetness.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour – ½ cup

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder -  a generous pinch (optional)

Unsweetened cocoa powder – 1 tbsp

Brown sugar – ¼ cup

Vegetable oil – 1/3 cup

Coffee granules – 1 heaped tsp

Eggs – 2 nos.

Walnuts crushed- 1 tablespoon (optional)

Method:

Prepare your cake tin. Either grease it or line it with parchment paper.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Dissolve the coffee granules in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside to cool.

Sieve the flour with the cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon powder.

Separate the eggs. Place egg whites in a large bowl. Add sugar and oil and whip well, for approximately 3 – 5 minutes.

Add the yolks one by one and continue whipping. Now set your mixer aside and grab a wooden spoon. Gradually add the flour-cocoa mixture to the egg mix. Do not bother to beat it well as we only need to fold it into the egg mix.

Once mixed, pour the batter into a prepared cake tin. Sprinkle the walnuts over the cake top. A cake of this size usually goes in to a six inch diameter tin.  Accordingly you can choose one for yourself.

Bake the cake in the pre-heated oven for around 40 minutes or till a skewer comes out clean. 

Relish this soft, yummy and guilt-free cake with a steaming hot cup of coffee!