With fresh cherries and whole wheat flour, this chocolate cherry cake is better for you. You don't have to say that it's vegan, but it is!
– 1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour – ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder – 1 teaspoon baking soda – ½ teaspoon salt – 1 scant cup raw (turbinado) sugar – ½ cup melted coconut oil or quality vegetable oil – 1 cup coffee (I mixed one packet of Starbucks VIA instant coffee with cold filtered water, you could also just use 1 cup of cold water) – 1 teaspoon vanilla extract – ½ teaspoon almond extract – 2 tablespoons cider vinegar – 1 ¼ pound dark cherries (roughly enough cherries to cover the bottom of your cake pan)
Warm the oven up to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut up the cherries. The cherry pitter I bought makes it really easy to remove the pits from cherries.
Place parchment paper on your pan bottom. I used a 9-inch non-stick springform pan to easily remove the cake. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in the cake pan.
Put the oil, cold coffee (or cold water and Starbucks VIA), almond extract, and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Then, mix the ingredients together.
Add the wet ingredients to the baking pan. Use a fork or a small whisk to mix the batter until it is smooth.
Add the vinegar and quickly mix it in. The batter will react with the vinegar and baking soda to form pale swirls. Just stir until the vinegar is spread out evenly in the batter.
Add the cherries and mix them in with little stirring. With my finger, I pushed the cherries into the batter.
If you stick a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean after 35 minutes, the cake is done. Leave to cool.