Devil's Food Cake
The most traditional of chocolate cakes, devil's food is marked by its dark color and dense texture. Try finishing the cake with Easy Fluffy White Frosting
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 6 ounces) soft unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) Baker's Special sugar or granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3/4 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) milk or water
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans, three 8-inch round pans, or a 13 x 9-inch sheet cake pan.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and salt till fluffy and light, beating for at least 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa and baking powder. If lumps remain, sift the mixture.
Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix together the milk or water and the vanilla. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, then add half the milk, another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and the remaining flour. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally throughout this process. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
Bake the cake(s) in a preheated 350°F oven for 30 to 35 minutes (a bit longer for the sheet cake), until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove the cake(s) from the oven, cool them for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove them from their pans (leave the sheet cake in the pan, for easiest serving). Cool completely before frosting. Yield: Two 9-inch or three 8-inch rounds, or a 13 x 9-inch sheet cake.
This recipe reprinted from The Baker's Catalogue, Spring through Summer 2001.
Reviews
04/26/2010
Used this recipe this afternoon, substituting a mix of 2 parts double-dutch dark cocoa and one part black cocoa for the Dutch-process cocoa. Then I added a teaspoon of espresso powder, resulting in a deep, rich, dark chocolate cake. It was perfect for the Black Forest Cherry Cake I made for my son's birthday.
04/23/2010
Easy recipe. Simple and minimal with the ingredients. The flavor wasn't as rich as I expected but this may just be the nature of devil's food case. Curse Satan! Maybe I should try the angel food cake recipe. But this is a good recipe- it's just not ardently chocolatey.
03/25/2010
Can't resist fooling with recipes, so I substituted half white whole wheat flour and half cake flour, lowered baking powder to 1 tsp, added 1 tsp of baking soda and used buttermilk for the liquid. Came out great, if a bit dry (I actually like my cake on the dry side, though). Iced with coffee buttercream.
02/23/2010
Wow! I made this for my husband's birthday, and it is awesome! Prep was easy; I saw what the other rater said was a little "batter breaking" when adding the milk, but mine was room temperature (as all ingredients should be) and the batter came together beautifully when the last of the flour was incorporated. The taste and crumb are stupendous, moist, and light. I used KAF's Unbleached Cake Flour Blend, too; so light and moist! I used two 8" pans too and baked it for 40 minutes. I made a chocolate buttercream (my hubby's a chocoholic!) to go with it...this is his new favorite!! We loved this recipe!! Thanks KAF!
01/25/2010
I quadrupled this recipe for a full sheet cake, and it baked up beautifully. I served the cake as a single layer and used the recommended fluffy butercream icing, which I made in triple quantity. It was an outstanding dessert for a banquet and I received many nice compliments.
01/23/2010
Not sure what happened but when I added the milk to the batter, the whole thing appears to have broke apart, as if the cold milk caused the butter to break apart. I made cupcakes with this recipe and the tops of the cupcakes had a lumpy texture. Any suggestions to improve on this?
(The taste was good though!)
This sounds like the perfect time to call our bakers to problem solve with you. Call us at 800-827-6836 and we'll work through the solution together. Irene @ KAF
10/26/2009
I used this recipe to make cupcakes (24 cupcakes baked for 18 min). The cake was moist, tasty and held up well to being frosted with a butter cream and when the cup cake liners were removed for eating (ie: didn't crumble). Delicious!
07/02/2009
I made this cake in a 13X9 pan, and I even substituted half the sugar with Splenda, used water (not milk), and egg beaters as a lower cal egg substitute. And it still came out perfect...not too sweet, not too rich...and perfectly moist. It was a big hit. I topped it with some homemade chocolate peanut butter icing.
05/16/2009
Used this recipe to make cupcakes (24) with the recommended Vanilla Frosting. Perfect pairing. The cake is dense without being heavy. Not too sweet. The icing gives the perfect amount of sweet. My mom and mil cannot handle very sweet desserts, but both loved these cupcakes. Definitely baking again.
05/11/2009
Wow, made this cake twice with alternative flour (no wheat) for 2 birthday parties. GREAT results! Wonderful taste and texture. One cake had raspberry cream filling and chocolate/raspberry frosting. The other filled with about an inch of espresso bavarian cream and ganash frosting, Great cake wheat or not.
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