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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.
Baked it. Ate it. Loved it! Printed it (for my fav recipes binder)!
Only things I did differently were: I used 2 cups fresh raw milk b/c I didn’t soak my fresh soft white winter wheat flour. =( Maybe next time I’ll take the time to try that part. And I used two 9 x 9 pans (not that it matters =). I used the buttercream icing, too. I ended up using 1/2 powdered rapadura and 1/2 powdered conf. sugar just b/c I don’t care for the strong taste of rapadura. Overall, I didn’t deviate too much. GREAT RECIPES! and best of all – I have all these ingredients in my pantry most all the time. =) Thanks a bunch.
Can you give me your exact recipe please???
What about making cupcakes with this recipe? What do I need to change?
Thanks!
I also would like to know what to use if raw milk is not available. Thanks!
Hi Sarah,
If I’m unable to soak the flour the night before, do I still just add all the ingredients together except for the sour milk when preparing the cake?
Thanks for your time!
Cassandra
How much flour is there after its sifted? I don’t have a sifter but have figured out how to get some bran out but its generally more than what you’ve said on previous recipes. I don’t want to put too much flour. 🙂
I don’t know the exact answer to your question, but when I made this cake over the weekend I accidentally added an extra 1/3 c. cocoa powder. The cake still tasted great with the extra dry ingredient, so it seems like the recipe is pretty flexible.
Can this cake be made with an equal amount of granulated coconut sugar? I have that on-hand but not sucanat. Thanks!
so, when I sift the flour, I’m not getting the bran separated out. Can you explain more? What do I use to sift it with ?