Devil’s Food Cake

Devil’s food cake is a chocolate lovers dream, a moist sponge with a rich chocolate fudge frosting. Some say it’s the best chocolate cake recipe. Sinfully irresistible and satisfyingly delicious, it’s worthy of any occasion.

This is one of my top 10 favourite cakes. I love to put a slice in the oven or microwave just for a few seconds to let the frosting melt a little and serve it with cream or ice cream 🙂 It’s irresistible!

And its not just me who loves this devils food cake. I find myself making this particular recipe several times per year. My father-in-law always requests this cake for his birthday, as he craves the intense rich, moist sponge and the dark chocolatey frosting.

Devil’s food cake was invented in the United States in the early twentieth century and is celebrated annually on May 19th – national devil’s food cake day. Enjoyed by chocolate cake lovers throughout the country and around the world, how it came to be named is a little more unclear. Some historians believe the cake got its name because it was a popular term in the early 1900s for recipes that were “sinful”. This cake certainly has more chocolate than a regular chocolate cake, making it darker in colour and giving it an intense taste and slightly heavier texture. You can read more about the history of Devil’s Food Cake here.

If you like the sound of this delicious cake, you might also like my flourless chocolate cake or my raspberry mascarpone cake.

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing what you think! And don’t forget to take a picture and tag me @thegourmetlarder or hashtag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram or Facebook. I love seeing what you’ve been baking! 🙂

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INGREDIENTS

For this devil’s chocolate cake recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Light muscovado sugar – has a high moisture content and a strong molasses flavour, perfect for creating a light moist sponge with a caramel hint.

• Sour cream – adds moisture to the cake, giving you a moist, tender crumb.

• Good quality chocolate – use a good quality, as it is the star in this recipe.

Chocolate recommendations: bars – Lindt Excellence dark 70% bar 100g, Montezuma’s darkside 51% bar 90g, Menier dark cooking chocolate 100g, Green and Black’s Organic dark Chocolate 100g, 1kg bags – Callebaut dark chocolate, Callebaut milk chocolate, Callebaut white chocolate.

• Medium eggs – add structure. Whisking the eggs incorporates air, helping the batter rise in the oven. Make sure they are at room temperature before you start.

• Caster or granulated sugar – gives structure and sweetness.

• Vanilla extract paste – adds flavour and enhances the other ingredient flavours.

– Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.

• Neutral-tasting oil (coconut, vegetable or sunflower oil) – I use oil because it gives a lighter cake, but if you want you can replace the oil with the same amount of melted butter.

• Water (at room temperature) – helps to thin the batter a little and create a light textured sponge.

• Plain or all-purpose flour – for adding structure and lightness to the cake.

• Cocoa powder – I prefer to use a high-quality dark cocoa powder over regular cocoa powder. It adds a rich chocolate flavour and builds structure.

Cocoa recommendations: Dr. Oetker fine dark cocoa powder or not as dark – Sevenhills wholefoods organic cacao powder

• Bicarbonate of soda or baking soda – is a chemical leavening which reacts with the acid in the cocoa powder and sour cream. Thus, carbon dioxide forms and causes the batter to expand, creating a nice light cake texture. 

• Salt – I highly recommend adding a good pinch of salt to your chocolate cakes. It might seem a bit weird, but it actually has the incredible ability to enhance sweetness, suppress bitterness, and elevate the flavour of chocolate, making your cake taste even better. It’s pretty crazy, the sodium in the salt sends signals to move glucose into your tongue’s sweet taste receptors, making the sweetness really pop. So, don’t be afraid to sprinkle a little salt – it’ll take your cakes to the next level!
  I recommend Maldon Sea salt flakes or Cornish sea salt, but any good quality sea salt is fine.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

SUGAR-FREE AND LOW-CALORIE OPTIONS

• Sugar-free or calorie reduced options: try alternatives such as coconut sugar, honey, natural erythritol, xylitol, stevia or fructooligosaccharide powder instead. There are also sweetener mixes available, that are 70% calorie reduced and low in carb.

• Brown sugar suggestions: Pure Via Baker’s soft brown sugar or Sukrin Gold’s natural brown sugar alternative.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

VEGAN OPTIONS

• Cream: I recommend the Coconut Collaborative double cream or Elmlea plant based double cream.

• Chocolate: There are now quite a few brands making vegan chocolate to choose from, such as these bars – Lindt classic milk chocolate, Ombar 55% coco mylk, Ombar 72% dark chocolate, Happi plain oat milk, Happi white chocolate, Montezuma’s Fitzroy 74% dark cocoa.

• Vegan egg option – Add 170g of apple sauce in place of the 2 eggs. You may have to bake the cake for a few more minutes.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

For an even more crumbly cake you can replace the neutral oil with 100g melted butter.

• Sour cream – can be replaced with double cream (US: heavy cream) or yoghurt.

• Espresso coffee – is a great compliment to chocolate, if you’ve not tried a bit of espresso when baking with chocolate, you really should. Add one teaspoon of instant coffee powder to the cream once it’s been taken of the boil.

• Flavoured chocolate – try using good quality chocolate that has natural oils added to it, such as orange, raspberry or mint. Lindt have some great options.

Flavoured recommendations: Lindt Excellence dark orange or Raspberry chocolate bar

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

This cake will keep well for up to 5 days in an airtight container. I prefer to store it in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before serving.

Freezing: I’d would suggest slicing the cake and wrapping each slice in clingfilm/plastic wrap prior to freezing.

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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

• Pyrex Measuring Jug 500ml | Capacity 568ml / 20 ounce 
• Pyrex Glass Measuring Jug, 1L

I think I have said it before that I am not a big fan of plastic, so I like this type of glass measuring jug for calculating my liquids.

• Milk Saucepan, 1 Litre With Double Sided Pouring Lips

This small pan is a great size for boiling small amounts of liquids and it has pouring lips built into the rim of the saucepan which makes it easy to use.

• Springform Round Cake Pan/Tin, Loose Base 20cm (8 inch)

These springform pans make removing cakes from them after baking a doddle. I personally tend to line them as often as possible to ensure that my cakes don’t break for added security.

Please check out my Shop for a curated collection of some of my favourite baking equipment. The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

Use a good quality chocolate for this recipe as it makes all the difference to the finished result.

Avoid over mixing as this knocks out the air that you incorporated when whisking the eggs, leading to a dense cake.

Avoid over baking the cakes. Use a skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre of the sponge to test if it’s ready. If it comes out with cake batter attached, leave to continue baking. Ideally, there should be a few crumbs clinging to your skewer or toothpick. If it comes out completely clean, then you’ve overbaked them.

Stacking the cakes evenly, if the tops of your cakes are slightly domed, use a sharp serrated knife to cut them level so that they can be stacked.