Devil’s Food Cake Recipe

Bryn Kirk — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:56:41 +0000

As a child, my favorite cake was Devil’s Food. I asked my mom, many times, to make this cake for my birthday.

Why is the cake called Devil’s Food?

Folk lore says that a group of Pilgrims that lived next door to a Chocolate House in Amsterdam in the late 1600’s, witnessed chocolate house patrons cavorting and making merry while they consumed chocolate. The Pilgrims were convinced that chocolate was made from the devil. They named chocolate “Devil’s Food.” Later on, when dark chocolate cake gained in popularity, it was named Devil’s Food Cake for its sinfully delicious nature.

Devil’s food cake is moist, airy, and rich. It is multi-layered and covered in lots of thick chocolate frosting. Yum!

There are different variations of Devil’s Food cake such as Red Velvet, Red Devil, Waldorf Astoria Cake, and $100 Dollar Cake.

Red velvet cake has a more pronounced red color because the high concentration of baking soda caused a reddening of the cocoa powder when baked. Today, red food coloring is sometimes used.

Feeling a craving for Devil’s Food cake? Here is a good recipe:

Devil’s Food Cake

Cake Mixture
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 pound butter, softened
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup milk
3 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Cream sugars and butter. Add melted chocolate. Set aside. Beat egg yolks together, and then blend in water and vanilla extract. Gradually add yolk mixture to the chocolate mixture and beat until fluffy. Mix together flour, salt and baking soda. Add flour mixture and milk to the main batter. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.

Pour into two greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans. Bake at 350°F about 30-35 minutes or until cakes spring back when touched lightly. Turn out onto cooling rack. When completely cooled, frost.

Frosting
10 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup water or cream
¾ cup butter

To frost the cake, spread a good-sized layer of the frosting over the top of one layer. Top with the second cake layer. Then spread the top and sides with the remaining frosting.

By the way, there is a National Devil’s Food Cake Day! It is May 19.

If you enjoy baking cakes here’s a chocolate cake recipe book that might interest you. It is published by Frances Moore of Painless Cooking.

By the way, the Devil’s Food Cake recipe above is not from this book.

For access to Frances time-proven recipes visit the Chocolate Cakes Recipes page.

Chocolate University Online Blog » folk lore

Devil’s Food Cake Recipe