Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

Why is there just a tiny piece of cake in the picture? Because, that’s all there is left from what I baked last night!
I confess, I ate most of it, my little boy some of it ,and my husband didn’t touch it. R, has a small problem, for a lack of a better word, when it comes to food. He’ll eat anything as long as he is oblivious to what’s in it. The moment you tell him what it is made of, and especially if they are healthier alternatives for the actual ingredients of the recipe, he will find a million reasons for why it doesn’t taste as good. In this case, the fibrous whole wheat apparently scoured his sensitive throat while he tried to gulp it down, or at least that is what I assumed, was happening when he said, he found it hard to swallow *eyes rolling*.

My experiments with whole wheat flour for cakes, began for my best friend K, who lives in Boston with her 2 adorable boys and husband (he’s adorable too). She has been an avid reader of my blog, and though she is a thorough vegetarian, and the recipe balance of this site leans with obvious partiality towards the carnivores, she maintains her loyalty as a big fan. She does it all for love of course. The fact that I would kill her with guilt if she didn’t mark this site as her home page, or that I could surprise-call her at any hour of the day with trivia questions about the web site,  has nothing to do with her allegiance ;).

K, ‘likes’ to make healthy choices when it comes to food and asked me one day if she could substitute wheat flour in my cake recipes. I had never baked with wheat until then and thought it as a nice excuse to do some research and experimentation myself.
Here’s what I found from all the baking I did  since then. My sole humble opinion only- Whole wheat flour is not suitable for all kinds of cake. I made a plain vanilla cake with wheat and though it didn’t reach the sea, I wouldn’t post that recipe ;). While baking with whole wheat, it is safer to stick with richly flavorful cakes like chocolate, plum, coffee or the spiced up fruit and nut kind. The whole wheat gives a conspicuous nutty taste to the cake and you need the right kind of pairing, to compliment that. To prevent my site from being black listed, if this is your first time baking with whole wheat, I’d suggest that you reduce the below proportions to half or quarter. If you don’t like it, there is not much damage. If you do, you can easily whip up a next batch.

Ingredients

13/4 whole wheat flour (I use the Pillsbury brand found in the Indian stores)
1 1/4 cup butter
1 cup sour cream (you can use one cup of milk or one cup of butter milk instead)
3 eggs

It is essential for the butter, sour cream and eggs to be at room temperature

13/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
3  tsp baking powder
5 -6 drops of good vanilla extract
1 tsp of instant coffee powder

Directions

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time. Add in the vanilla and sour cream.

Sift together flour, baking powder, coffee powder , cocoa powder and salt using a sieve.

Stir in the dry ingredients into the wet, a little at a time. Don’t over mix it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Spread batter evenly in a greased pan, dusted with flour and bake for 45 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Allow to cool.

Serve immediately or wrap in aluminum foil while still slightly warm (keeps it moist) to store for later.