A Sinfully Delicious Day!

Devil’s Food Cake is an American invention. It first appeared in print in 1905. What makes Devil’s Food Cake different than any other chocolate cake? Once upon a time, it was the use of unsweetened chocolate baking squares and generally more chocolate than a typical chocolate cake.

These days, with the convenience of unsweetened cocoa powder, the more contemporary recipes opt for the powder. Here’s an interesting fact about Chocolate Cakes – the original Chocolate Cakes weren’t chocolate at all. They were yellow cakes with chocolate frosting. When Chocolate first came around, people drank it. Eventually chocolate evolved into an ingredient to flavor frostings. And by the turn of the century, southern cooks were adding chocolate to the cake batter itself. Devil’s Food Cake is dark, rich and sinfully heavy. On the cake front, it’s about as far as you can get from Angel’s Food Cake. Some say that’s where the name came from – to describe a cake that was nothing like Angel’s Food. One contains fat, the other does not. One utilized the entire egg, the other does not. Both are delicious.

Happy National Devil’s Food Cake Day everyone! Enjoy this beautiful day.

Sinful Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Frosting
Devil’s Food Cake
1/2 cup Boiling Water
1/2 cup Hot Black Coffee
3/4 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1-3/4 cups Flour
1-1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Sugar
10 tablespoons Butter, at room temperature
3 Eggs
1 teaspoons Vanilla
1-1/4 cups Buttermilk

Heat oven to 350-degrees Lightly butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment paper. Dust the pans with flour, tapping out the excess.

In a small heatproof bowl, whisk together the boiling water, hot coffee and cocoa until smooth. Let cool completely.

In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a mixing paddle, cream together the sugar and butter on medium-high speed, until the mixture is light in color and texture, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla and the cooled cocoa mixture. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with the buttermilk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. As needed, stop mixer to scrape down the bowl. Continue to beat until smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. With an off-set spatula, smooth the tops of the cakes. Bake the cakes until they begin to pull away from the sides of the pans, 35 minutes. Transfer cakes in the pans to wire rack, let cool

for15 minutes. Run a knife around the inside of each pan to release the cake. Invert the pans onto the racks, lift off the pans, and peel off the parchment paper. Turn each cake right side up and let cool completely.

While the cakes cool, make the frosting.

Chocolate Frosting
3-3/4 cups Powdered Sugar
1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
8 tablespoons Butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Heavy Cream or as needed

In a large bowl, sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa.

In the cleaned bowl of the stand mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter. Add sugar mixer slowly to the the butter and mix until crumbly. Mix in the vanilla, and then gradually add enough of heavy cream to make a spreadable frosting.

Place 1 cake layer, bottom side up, on a cake plate. Using an icing spatula, spread the top of the layer with a generous 1/2 cup of the frosting. Place the second layer, top side down, on top of the first layer. Frost the top, then the sides, with the remaining frosting. Slice the cake into thick wedges and serve.