Chocolate Spelt Cake
✨an easy vegan recipe + microwave mug cake option✨
Timing is everything, and I realize come August the last thing most people want is a recipe that requires turning on the oven, but this chocolate cake has been a few years in the making, and I couldn't wait another day to share it with you. If you follow the post to the very end, you’ll see there’s even an option that yields cake in less than five minutes.
The journey began on February 23, 2018. I know the exact date because I always write the date in my notes when testing new recipes. It began with a late night craving for chocolate cake, except I didn’t want to wait hours between baking and cooling. I needed to weed the timing down to minutes, and the only way to do that was going the microwave mug cake route.
If I lost you at the mention of using a microwave, then calm down and come back to me. Hear me out. The inherent problem with every mug cake recipe I’ve ever tried is that the ratio of egg to every other ingredient is always too much. Think about it. If a standard cake recipe that makes two layers calls for 2 eggs, how can you really achieve a proper texture and taste in a cake that uses 1 whole egg per mug?
So, this handy little cake recipe started out as my answer to cracking the code for a perfect mug cake recipe. The way to get around the egg issue is to use ground flax. It’s a common egg substitute in baked goods and works fabulously. Before setting out to make a perfect mug cake recipe, I’d also been working on a shelf-stable chocolate cake mix because sometimes you just need a spur of the moment cake, at least if you’re me, you do.
The plot thickens, though, because for years I’ve been in love with the vegan chocolate spelt cake from Bread Alone. It’s rich and dense, and the idea that it’s vegan is pretty incredible. I’ve been a fan of using hot water and oil instead of milk and butter in chocolate cake for years, and using ground flax meant I already had a vegan cake. I just needed to play around with the ratios of all-purpose and spelt flours. All these roads lead to what is now my “house” chocolate cake. If restaurants can serve house wine, then I’m making house cake a thing.
Bake this cake as you see fit. Turn on the oven if it’s a cool day, or go the microwave mug cake route if you like since there are directions for that, too, in the notes. The recipe is super flexible, and can be baked as a loaf cake, which is my preferred way, and also made into cupcakes, or even baked as cake layers (I’ve even made it as a skillet cake). You can even prepare the batter ahead of time and let it sit in the fridge a few days. It is truly a dream recipe. There are lots of notes at the end, as one might expect from four years of playing around, tweaking to get the perfect recipe.
Happy baking, and hope your weekend has been a gentle one. –xo, j.
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