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How to make devil’s food cake the old-fashioned way by soaking the flour overnight for a melt-in-your-mouth treat for birthdays or other special occasions.
Devil’s food cake is often the birthday goodie my kids choose for me to make when their special day rolls around. Recently though, this recipe for chocolate chip cookie cake is giving it some good competition!
The inherent moistness of devil’s food cake combined with nutrient-loaded buttercream frosting makes for a melt-in-your-mouth experience that your child (and guests) won’t soon forget.
This old-fashioned version varies from modern recipes in that it is soaked in sour raw milk (or yogurt) overnight.
This simple, traditional step greatly improves flavor and moistness, while also significantly enhancing digestibility.
For those new to traditional cooking, soaking flour is one of the three methods used by ancestral cultures to prepare their grains.
The great thing about traditional preparation of grains is that you eat far less because you feel full faster. This is very important when it comes to cake and dessert in general because you won’t easily overeat!
Preparation Tip
The recipe below is for a large, double-layer devil’s food cake to serve many guests at a birthday party.
If you wish to make a single-layer cake only, cut the recipe in half and frost just the top.
Homemade Devils Food Cake (traditional method)
How to make devil's food cake the old-fashioned way by soaking the flour overnight for a melt-in-your-mouth treat for birthdays or other special occasions.
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour freshly ground is best
- 3 cups whole milk yogurt or lightly soured raw milk
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup expeller pressed coconut oil
- 3 cups sucanat unrefined cane sugar
- 1 cup cocoa powder
- 3 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
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Sift the fresh whole grain flour and feed the discarded bran to chickens, ducks or other birds. Removing the bran increases the lightness of the cake considerably without using toxic commercial white flour.
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Mix the sifted fresh flour with the yogurt or soured raw milk, cover, and leave on the counter overnight or for about 8 hours. I usually mix the flour and the milk in the morning and make the cake in the afternoon.
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Blend in the remaining ingredients. Pour the batter into 2 – 9×13 glass baking pans greased with expeller coconut oil, dividing the batter equally between the 2 pans.
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Bake at 350 °F/177 °C for about 30 minutes or until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Take care not to overbake.
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Cool the cake completely and then remove one cake layer onto a serving platter and ice the top with raw butter frosting.
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Remove the second devil's food cake layer and carefully place on top of the frosted cake layer. Cover the remaining cake with more butter frosting.
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Store devil's food cake for up to 2 days in the microwave which makes the ideal, airtight pastry cabinet! After that, refrigerate any leftovers in a sealed container (there probably won't be any).
Recipe Notes
Substitute 1 cup carob powder and 1 tbsp chocolate extract for the cocoa powder if desired.
Substitute coconut sugar or date syrup for the cane sugar if desired.
**Do not use honey, as baking with honey is not healthy.
Budget-wise tip: Using homemade vanilla extract is much less expensive than buying it.
More Healthy Cake Recipes!
Love making cake using traditional methods and ingredients? Try these other old-fashioned recipes too.
Thank you for this recipe!! I see that this is a big cake. I am thinking of making the whole thing..but put 1/2 in for cup cakes and make 2 smaller rounds for a layer cake. I don’t have sucanat. I am wondering if I can use my honey granules instead. I am going to try and will let you know. Now to sour my milk.
Years ago my Grandmother used to add Apple Cider Vinegar to her milk to sour it. Do you think that would work here?
Yes, that would speed things up. How much would you use? I’m wondering how that might affect the taste of the milk once its clabbered?
She only used a few teaspoons. I never could taste the vinegar in her cakes. I will let you know.
I’ve read not to use dairy for soaking as it actually interferes with something…I can’t remember what though. I think I read it in Rami Nagel’s book. Any thoughts?
The more liquid the soaking medium the better. Lightly clabbered milk or buttermilk would be more effective than yogurt for example.
Thank you for this recipe!! YAY!!!
Ha! Great use for the microwave! Of course, we don’t have one, but it’s genius nonetheless!
@Jennifer Ha, ha that’s funny 🙂 I actually make this cake only like 3X in a whole year (for my kids birthday .. fortunately my kids birthdays are not close to each other so the timing works out great).
Oh, I’ll make the whole thing!!!! 🙂
I never have enough milk to have it sour before using…how long is ‘lightly soured raw milk’ left on the counter before adding into the cake batter for soaking?
Also, how do you think this will turn out using fresh spelt flour?
@Jennifer there is so much fat in this cake that it doesn’t cause issues when a once in awhile treat .. it’s also very very large – it’s a party cake – so feel free to make only half!
Blegh… Not us anymore! 🙂 I need to figure out a good frosting for cake/cupcakes without all the sugar. I’ve tried unrefined sugar & coconut palm sugar, but it didn’t taste so good… Not sure why, since it was a regular butter cream recipe. My GOAL is to figure out how to make a half way nutritious fondant for wedding cakes!!! 😀
Yum! I am gluten free perhaps I could go one more and use gluten free flour, sounds delicious!