Skip to main content

Maple Chocolate Cake

The one-bowl chocolate cake is a busy baker's workhorse, and a concept that's been riffed on in countless ways by just about every cookbook, food magazine, and professional domestic goddess over the past few decades. And for good reason-who doesn't love being minutes away from homemade chocolate cake, no complicated machinery required? My version is naturally sweetened with maple syrup, which also makes it unbeatably moist.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    Makes two 9-inch cake layers, one 9 x 13-inch sheet cake, or about 1 1/2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients

1

1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces/192 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

3

/4 cup (2 1/2 ounces/72 grams) unsweetened natural cocoa powder

1

1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3

/4 teaspoon baking powder

3

/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1

cup (11 7/8 ounces/336 grams) pure maple syrup (dark or very dark preferred)*

1

cup (8 1/2 ounces/242 grams) 2% Greek yogurt

2

large eggs

1

/4 cup (2 ounces/57 grams) grapeseed, or canola oil

1

teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Need to make a substitution?

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    1. Position oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.

    Step 2

    2. Lightly grease a 9 × 13-inch rectangular baking pan or two 9-inch round pans (and line them with parchment paper), or line 18 wells of two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

    Step 3

    3. Into a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

    Step 4

    4. In a large measuring cup or medium bowl, whisk together the syrup, yogurt, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract.

    Step 5

    5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Using a whisk, energetically blend the batter by hand until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. Spread the batter into the prepared pan or pans. (For fill the cups no more than two-thirds full—you should get 18 cupcakes.)

    Step 6

    6. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly touched, 30 to 35 minutes for sheet and/or layer cakes, or 20 minutes for cupcakes. Cool completely in the pans on a wire rack before inverting and frosting.

Image may contain: Food, Sweets, Advertisement, Bread, and Sandwich
From Real Sweet: More Than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made With Natural Sugars © 2015 by Shauna Sever. Reprinted with permission by WilliamMorrow Cookbooks, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Buy the full book from HarperCollins or from Amazon.