Whole wheat chocolate cake is a delicious, moist, refined sugar-free dessert! Rye flour adds depth, while maple syrup and honey add sweetness.
This post first appeared January 17, 2018 and was last updated February 5, 2022.
Photography by Kelly Neil
Chocolate cake with whole wheat flour is a moist and decadent dessert, which may sound surprising for a refined sugar-free cake! This recipe is made with eggs which add both structure and fat to the crumb. It’s proof that whole grain baking doesn’t have to be dry and dusty.
I chose olive oil for this recipe, which in my opinion, is comparable to using melted butter, though perhaps a bit more dense (if you’re not familiar, we have a whole post called How To Bake With Olive Oil).
A blend of maple syrup and honey makes the best of two of my favourite ingredients in the world. I honestly think most people won’t believe you when you tell them this is a refined sugar-free chocolate cake. I didn’t include a recipe for refined sugar-free icing in this post, however, Alex has a great recipe for creamy vegan cashew icing over on her site you can check out.
Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- Whole Wheat Flour — Sold in the baking aisle of most major grocery stores, whole wheat flour consists of grinding the entire wheat kernel. It sucks up a lot more moisture than all-purpose flour, and for this reason, I don’t recommend doing a straight substitution of one for the other.
- Rye Flour — Isn’t a huge factor in this whole grain cake recipe. I love it’s earthy flavour, and to me it adds depth, however, if you don’t have it don’t fret. Use all whole wheat instead.
Wet Ingredients
Method
Tips & Notes
For best results, use a digital kitchen scale for accuracy.
If you don’t have a hand or stand mixer you can make this cake by hand with a whisk and a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
I love to use cake soaks on my cakes. Even though this whole grain cake is moist as is, a soak adds extra richness to the mouthfeel. A favourite simple cake soak I like to use is 1 tablespoon of milk mixed with ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract. Just use a pastry brush to brush it all over the top of one cake layer before decorating.
How To Store Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake
I like to keep my whole grain chocolate cake on a platter on the counter, uncovered for the first day. After that, I cover it loosely with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. The cake will keep in the fridge for up to four days (but may be a bit dried out by then).
How To Freeze
My favourite way to freeze whole wheat chocolate cake is in separate layers before icing. Once cool, trim the tops of the two cakes (optional). Wrap each cake layer, gently but tightly, in two layers of plastic wrap. To defrost, remove the cakes (or just one cake if serving it as a single layer) and sit out at room temperature until thawed. unwrap and decorate however you like.
Substitutions
If you don’t have or want to use rye flour, use all whole wheat flour.
You can use any chocolate you like or have on hand. The darker the chocolate the lower the sugar content.
You can substitute dairy-free milk for the milk.
Coconut oil is a good substitute for olive oil, however, it is a bit lighter so the cake may not be as moist as it should or could be.
More Refined Sugar-Free Desserts
Banana Breakfast Cookies With Dark Chocolate
Carrot Cake With Orange & Cardamom (Vegan)
Coconut Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
Deep Dark Summer Fruit Galette
Recipe
Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake With Rye (Refined Sugar-Free)
Description
Equipment
- 2 8-inch (20-cm) round cake tins
- Parchment paper cut to the size of the cake tin
- Scissors
- Mixing bowl
- Stand mixer
- Wire rack
- Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
- ½ cup rye flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ½ cup chocolate, chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup honey
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Lightly grease two 8-inch (20-cm) round cake tins with olive oil then line them with a circle of parchment paper cut to fit. Set aside.
- Place the whole wheat flour, rye flour, cocoa, chopped chocolate, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a second mixing bowl, add the milk, maple syrup, honey, olive oil, eggs, and vanilla. Use a hand or stand mixer to whisk everything together.
- Add the flour mixture to the bowl of wet ingredients. Mix everything together on low speed until the flour is just combined (a few streaks of flour is okay).
- Divide the chocolate batter evenly between the two prepared cake tins. Place the cakes in the preheated oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the sides are starting to pull away and the middle is set.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and place the tins on a wire cooling rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out of the tin and onto the wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Kris says
Can’t wait to try this cake! And the photos are stunning.
Barbara says
Can the rye and wheat flours be substituted with “sprouted” rye and wheat flours. Are there nutritional figures available for this recipe?
Kelly Neil says
Barbara, hello! I’m actually not 100% sure about substituting the flours, as baking with rye and whole wheat flours are completely new to me. I’ve always used regular white AP flour for baking and I actually created this recipe, for my toddler and I, as a healthier alternative to my mom’s standard chocolate cake recipe. I’m sorry I don’t have the nutritional information available and that I can’t be more helpful!
Kelly Neil says
We ate the whole thing in a day and a half. It was seriously delicious!
Cynthia says
Delish recipe, for me it was so hard to bake. I didn’t know how to follow instructions, I was such a mess. Now I just easily follow any recipe and this one in particular I love and so my whole family I will do it again. Instead of olive oil I used coconut oil.
For anyone who has the same struggle as I, what really helped me was world-class pastry chef Keiko who apart from having any recipe of the book in pdf from easy to fancy she also explains each one with a video, that it’s a very useful for clumsy people like me. Hope I helped someone in their baking journey.
https://tinyurl.com/y9met7t9
Donna says
Wow is this ever a winner! I have a Mockmill so I milled wheat and rye berries fresh. My cake was cooked in just over 45 min….so glad I checked it early! Thanks for a great recipe 😋
Jo says
My rye flour had gone bad so I used some fresh barely flour instead. It worked perfectly! I’m a huge fan of chocolate and this cake definitely supports my sweet tooth. The texture and taste is lovely. I reduced the amount of honey to 1/2 cup and I’m very pleased. Thank you for a wonderful recipe I can feel good about.
Kelly Neil says
Oh that is so awesome Jo! Thank you so much for letting us know!! xo!
Linda says
This is a wonderful cake. The rye is just perfect. I had whole wheat pastry flour too so I used that in place of regular whole wheat. Cake is moist and crumb even. Keeper recipe.
Sophie Mackenzie says
So happy you’re loving the recipe, Linda! Love the addition of ww pastry flour <3
Jocelyn says
Tx for sharing this recipe. I weighed my dry ingredients. I swap the whole wheat for Red Fife flour. I also decrease honey to less than 1/2 cup.
My cake did not rise to top of pan size. The top cracked by 30 minutes. I pulled them out of oven to cool. I level the top to freeze the cakes to frost another day. LOVE the cake. Just need to find out how high cake is supposed to rise. Maybe have to increase the Red Fife flour.
Kelly Neil says
Hi Jocelyn! Hmmm, I’m not sure why your cake cracked, however, one trick is to wet a tea towel and wrap it around the outside edges of the cake tin while it’s in the oven! The added moisture in the oven help prevent cracking and the wet towel insulates the tin which helps even more. The cakes should rise just below the top of the tin. Maybe the honey reduction had something to do with it?
Kim says
This cake turned out beautifully! It was moist and flavorful. I weighed everything out and only changed out canola oil for the olive oil (because of intolerances to olive oil for some of the people who would be eating it).I paired it with an orange buttercream and vanilla ice cream. Yummy!