Chocolate Coconut Barley Cake

Today, I thought I would try something completely on my own. Since it's Thursday**, Natalie is off at school for the whole day. That leaves me in the kitchen alone. I have this bag of barley flour that has remained unopened since we bought it. So, I thought it was time to try a NOT gluten-free recipe. This one is starring Chocolate, of course.



**Now that it is Friday, we are, of course, reworking the recipe. The original recipe attempt is way down at the bottom of this post. While the cake has a nice sweet chocolaty favor, it is very dry and crumbly. This seems to be a problem with anything we bake without wheat flour. 



It also lacks that coconutty flavor that I thought would come through from the oil and the coconut milk. Since the coconut flavor is buried beneath the chocolate cocoa flavor, we are adding an extra pop with unsweetened coconut. The one thing the cake is, is sweet, so we don't want to add anymore sugar. Thus, the UN-sweetened coconut.

We added a starch to our flour to try and work on the crumbly texture, along with coconut creme, instead of coconut milk. Additionally, we increased the amount of oil in the cake. We did this mostly to offset the addition of moisture the shredded coconut would remove from the cake. 

Finally, we are playing around with mayonnaise and egg yolks, trying to find a good balance to replace the missing egg whites from the dough.

To keep this cake moist, we are also cutting down the baking time to around thirty minutes. And, finally, I am going to try an old baking trick I haven't done in years. By using two inch strips of towel, or terry cloth, soaked in water and pinned around the edges of the cake pan, the cake will bake more evenly, keeping the edges of the cake from cooking faster than the center. 

Adding the shredded coconut gives it a nice nutty coconut punch. This is a denser cake that reminds me of Hostess Sno Balls. I have always loved those, so I think this is a fabulous thing. That is also why we are going to work on making a marshmallow frosting to go with this recipe, next.

Chocolate Coconut Barley Cake

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

6 Tablespoons mayonnaise (yolk only type)

1 cup coconut oil melted

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups barley flour

½ cup potato starch

3/4 cup cocoa powder

½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 can coconut cream
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Use 9" x 13" baking pan. Coat with nonstick spray.

Beat sugar, egg yolks, coconut oil and vanilla together until smooth and creamy. In separate bowl, stir barley flour together with cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. A fork works well for this blending process. Add unsweetened coconut and stir until blended. 

Add the tablespoon of apple cider vinegar directly into the open can of coconut cream and stir together. Set aside for two to three minutes. This will create a mock dairy-free buttermilk for the cake.

Mix half of the dry flour mixture into the moist sugar mixture slowly. Add half of the coconut liquid sugar mixture while mixing. This works really well with a stand mixer. Or add liquid and then mix. Add rest of dry mixture and beat into moist sugar mixture and then finish up with rest of the coconut liquid. Blend until everything is well combined.

Pour batter into oiled pan and bake for 28-30 minutes. Cake is finished when  top springs back when lightly touched. 

Original attempt:
4 egg yolks

1/2 cup coconut oil melted

2 cups white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 cups barley flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 can coconut milk

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar