Chocolate Mystery Cake

Everyone should have a single layer cake recipe ready for times when you need a little something sweet quickly. This one is quick to make, vegan and has a secret, healthful ingredient--prune juice.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 6 slices

Ingredients

  

for the cake:

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 cup prune juice
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

for dusting:

• confectioners sugar optional

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 8-inch cake pan. Set aside.
• In a large bowl or the bowl of the stand mixer, whisk the dry ingredients. Beat in the wet ingredients one at a time until a smooth, thick batter forms.
• Scrape into prepared pan.
• Bake 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Cool completely on wire rack, dust with confectioners sugar if desired prior to serving.

Notes

I did find that while the cake was very moist when I first served it, a slice I left out dried out very quickly. I would promptly wrap up any leftovers and if you aren't serving the cake right away, store it in an airtight container. It does not have a protective layer of icing to protect it and is fairly low in fat.

Keyword cake, pantry baking

I have been working on a project about baking with fruit that I would very much like to find a publisher for and as a result have spent more than my share of time down various baking rabbit holes. I found a trove of cakes called water cakes which reminded me of “wacky” cakes (I made a chocolate one and a marble one during the pre-vaccination days of the pandemic) but without the vinegar–simple, thrifty cakes that require no butter or eggs. These water cakes, unsurprisingly call for water as the main ingredient but I thought, why not use fruit juice? Prune juice, despite its reputation for being medicinal, is actually a pretty flavorful, rich juice that, much like beets (as seen in this recipe for chocolate beet cupcakes) pairs very well with chocolate. It added some real depth to a cake with only a handful of ingredients and no eggs or butter. I highly recommend it. This was a great little treat at the end of a surprisingly low, difficult day–it mixed together in seconds, cooled quickly, and only needed a dusting of sugar. I have some other baking to do this week so I froze the rest of it and look forward to seeing how it defrosts.