Devil’s Food Cake

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 the other readers. And don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram. I love seeing what you come up with! 🙂


RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS

  • EASE: simple and can be made in advance.
  • FREE-FROM: check out my substitutions section for vegan, gluten and sugar-free options.
  • GREAT FOR: weekend baking or special occasions like valentine’s day, Easter, Mother’s Day or friends and family visiting.
  • TASTE: loaded with delicious chocolate in the sponge and in the ganache with the perfect balance of sweetness.
  • TEXTURE: dense, moist, crumbly chocolate sponge with a creamy chocolate fudge frosting.
  • SERVING: perfect on its own or with cream or ice cream.
  • QUANTITY: 12 slices (20 cm / 8inch springform pan)
  • TIME: 1 hour


    Your recipe adventures start here!

    Get updates on the latest posts by The Gourmet Larder straight to your inbox.

    Craving more? Stay in touch with me through social media at FacebookPinterest, Twitter and Instagram for all of the latest updates!


    © THE GOURMET LARDER. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Please do not republish the recipe or its content in full instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Further information can be found in my FAQ’s.


    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. 

    TIP:

    Here I want to add how just a pinch of salt can make a difference to eating cake. With the addition of salt, all the intrinsic flavours of the chocolate are brought to the surface faster. In a seemingly absurd or contradictory way, salt intensifies the mouth’s ability to taste sweetness. It is the sodium that sends signals to move glucose into the sweet taste receptor cells in our tongue. The result is that salt not only alerts our ‘salt sensitivity’, but also our ‘sweet sensitive’ taste buds.
    I recommend Maldon Sea salt flakes or Cornish sea salt.




    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

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

    GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

    VEGAN OPTIONS

    • 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.

    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

    If you experiment, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.


    NUTRITION

    Serving: one cake slice

    Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, or the source of nutrition data.

    I strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but make no warranties regarding its accuracy.

    I encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

    Devil's Food Cake

    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.

    © THE GOURMET LARDER. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Please do not republish the recipe or its content in full instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Further information can be found in my FAQ’s.


    TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

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

    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.

    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.

    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.

    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.


    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.

    Devil's Food Cake

    Devil’s Food Cake

    Preparation:30 minutes
    Baking:30 minutes
    Total:1 hour
    Servings: 12 slices
    Tools you’ll need:
    • 2 x 20 cm (8 inch) springform pans
    Devil's food cake is rich, moist and fudgy, some say the best chocolate cake recipe. Sinfully irresistible for any chocolate lover and worthy of every occasion.

    INGREDIENTS LIST
     

    Sponge cake

    • 170 g light brown sugar
    • 120 ml sour cream (full-fat)
    • 100 g dark chocolate (minimum 50% cocoa solids) (chopped)
    • 2 medium eggs
    • 200 g caster sugar
    • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract or 1/4 tsp of vanilla paste
    • 100 ml neutral-tasting oil (coconut, vegetable or sunflower oil)
    • 170 ml water (at room temperature)
    • 300 g plain flour (all-purpose)
    • 1 pinch fine sea salt
    • 3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (24g)
    • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda / baking soda

    Chocolate frosting

    • 200 ml double or heavy cream
    • 150 g dark chocolate (minimum 50% cocoa solids) (chopped)
    • 150 g milk chocolate (chopped)

    Preparation
     

    • Sponge cakes: To a heavy based saucepan add the chocolate, sour cream, muscovado sugar and set over a low heat. Stir occasionally until it completely melts and then set aside.
    • Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 400°F / Gas 6.
    • Line and grease 2 x 20cm springforms or cake pans and set aside until needed.
    • In a large bowl or stand mixer add the eggs and caster sugar, whisk until they are pale and double in volume.
    • Add the vanilla extract, water and the oil and whisk again to incorporate.
    • Sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt and bicarbonate of soda into the egg mixture and gently fold it in. Half way through folding, pour in the melted chocolate mixture and continue folding until fully incorporated.
    • Divide the batter between the two cake pans.
    • Baking: Place the cake pans onto a baking tray in the centre of your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with a few cake crumbs on it. If it has wet batter leave to bake.
    • Once baked remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove from the pans and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
    • Ganache: In a small saucepan bring 200ml cream to the boil. In a medium bowl add the chopped dark and milk chocolate. Once the cream has come to the boil pour it over the chocolate and leave to sit for 5 minutes without stirring.
    • After the time has passed, whisk the cream and chocolate together until it becomes silky smooth and lump free.
      Leave until the ganache is thick and spreadable. In hot weather it may be necessary to place the ganache in the fridge but remember to keep an eye on it to prevent it from solidifying.
    • Assembly: Place one of the cakes on a suitable serving plate and spread the top with about 1/2 cm of ganache. Place the second sponge on top and spread the remaining ganache over the top and sides until the cake is completely covered.
    • Keep in a cool place until ready to serve.

    Notes & 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 in to 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.
    If the tops of your cakes are slightly domed, use a sharp serrated knife to cut them level so that they can be stacked.
    insta
    KEYWORDS cake recipes, chocolate cake recipes, chocolate dessert recipes, frosting recipes

    www.thegourmetlarder.com


    Devil's Food Cake

    PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW IT TURNED OUT FOR YOU!

    If you tried this Devil’s Chocolate Cake or any other recipe on my website, please let me know how you got on in the comments below. I love hearing from you. Also, please leave a star rating whilst you’re there!

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter, so that you don’t miss out on more delicious recipes and follow me on social media.

    HUNGRY FOR MORE? FOLLOW ME!


    PIN THIS RECIPE FOR LATER

    Devil's Food Cake

    If you liked this devil’s food cake recipe,

    take a look at my inspirational recipe collection for more ideas.

    Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter, so that you don’t miss out on more delicious recipes and follow me on social media.

    HAPPY BAKING!

    Nigel sig




    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating