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So, how many of you out there are suckers for anything chocolate? If you’re raising your hand and licking the screen, then you are like me. I know some people lust after sweet, pretty glistening sugar confections. But, no sir. Not me! I take chocolate, and I mean REAL chocolate, above anything else when I need a sweet treat! I don’t even like sweet chocolate. As far as I’m concerned, chocolate is only chocolate when it has above 70% cocoa solids! Even that has been too little for me these days. I am guilty of eating 80% chocolate straight, I’m afraid. But, the cake below is not so deep and dark that there isn’t some sweetness to it. I’ve tried that, and it ain’t good! Kinda tastes like someone put out a cigarette in your mouth and then walked around with socks on!

Devil’s Food is one of the cakes I’ve been eating since I was a child. Yes, I would eat a Twinkie or Swiss Roll on occasion. But, I always tried to go right for the Suzie Q’s if there were any. With all of us cousins, sisters and such fighting for them, it was a gamble as to what would be left. Half the time, I didn’t eat the cream filling. I would break the cake apart and scoop out the filling to discard with the wrapper. I did the same with Oreos. Just give me the chocolate!! So, my love affair with dark chocolate began. Granted, I don’t remember all that many cakes as a very young kid. I’m sure they were there. I just don’t remember them. But, at some point something must have opened the flood gate for me. Perhaps it was my love of chocolate ice cream at my Mimi’s house. Mimi, Papaw and my Great Aunt Pauline always said “Christa Belle! You’re going to turn into chocolate ice cream one of these days!” and they would all laugh. I still hear them say that to me as I get out the chocolate ice cream and place it in my bowl. Papaw always made sure I didn’t leave the ice cream out for too long. He was afraid it would thaw too much and then get freezer burned when it went back in. So, he usually scooped it out for me if it was too hard for my tiny wrists to muster. Usually, it was.

Now, on to the cake portion of the program

I had been looking for a good Devil’s Food Cake recipe for a while. After many, many books of disappointing results, I finally found the trick and a good recipe to finagle into my own creation. The “trick” to a good Devil’s Food is cocoa powder. You’d think melted chocolate would be more rich, but it isn’t. The cocoa powder has such an earthy hit to it and that’s what makes it so devilishly, sinfully good! I have been getting a cocoa powder made by Chatfield’s. Yes, it’s in the natural foods aisle. It’s unsweetened and Alkaline free, which means it isn’t “Dutched”. It’s so red, too, which makes for the best Devil’s Food! (Apparently, it has gotten quite the bad rep for not being good by places like The New York Times. But I dare anyone to taste my cake made with said powder and tell me it’s not a deep, chocolate flavour!) Before them, I used a variety of cocoa powders with not as much luck. I did like the Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder, too. But, it’s slightly sweetened and not as natural. Plus, it depends on the ingredients you add WITH the powder that result in a chocolatey chocolate flavour. For example, I use only non-processed cane sugars in all of my recipes and therefore need less of it. I also add a teaspoon of Espresso Powder to the dry ingredients. Coffee and chocolate really are best friends. One brings out the other. But anyway… The natural flavours of the cocoa, sugars, and such all work together to make the right balance of deep and sweet. The only thing in this recipe that wasn’t organic was the Espresso Powder and the Italian 00 Flour. I wish it were organic, but it isn’t yet. You could, of course, use All Purpose flour here. I just find the texture to be so light and moist with the 00. You could use cake flour as well, obviously.

For the recipe, you will want all of your ingredients to be at room temperature. This means the butter should be left out overnight, the eggs at least two hours and the buttermilk, covered, for about an hour. If you happen to forget, place the cold eggs in a bowl of hot tap water for about 20 minutes. You can grate the butter right over the mixing bowl to soften it instantly and leave it out as the eggs warm up. It’s such an easy fix and gets perfect results!

The recipe is as follows:

Sparky’s Devil’s Food Cake

Ingredients

- 12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted sweet cream butter
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (natural, organic or unrefined is best)
- 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda (Aluminum free, such as Bob’s Red Mill brand)
- 2 tsp. Pure Vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. Instant Espresso Coffee*
- 2 cups Italian 00 flour, or Cake flour, or All purpose
- 3/4 cup Cocoa Powder
- 4 large eggs (again, organic, free-range is best. Fresh as possible, too!)
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk*

Method
- Begin by buttering two 9-inch cake pans and placing parchment circles on bottom. Then, butter parchment and dust with cocoa powder. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Whisk the flour and cocoa together in a separate bowl. Set aside
- Cream the butter, sugar, baking soda and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, for at least 5 minutes. When light and fluffy, add the vanilla and mix to combine. Follow with the eggs, adding one at a time, until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides an bottom of the bowl and make sure all ingredients are fully incorporated. Batter should be smooth and velvety.
- Add a third of the flour/cocoa mixture to the bowl, slowly and follow with half of the buttermilk. Then, another third flour, rest of the buttermilk and finish with the last third of the flour mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Remove paddle attachment and scrape down a final time by hand. Divide batter evenly into the two pans. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. Check at 30 with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean, cakes are done. They should be pulling away from the sides of the pan.
- Cool on wire racks in cake pans for about 10 minutes. Then, remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. Leave parchment on, if it hasn’t come off, until ready to assemble layer cake. It helps keep the cake moist.
- When completely cooled, frost/decorate as you like. I used a Sour Cream Chocolate Icing on this. It was fabulous! That recipe is below this one.

* Instant Espresso Powder is usually in with gourmet coffees in grocery stores. If you can’t find it, just use about 1/4 cup brewed, cooled espresso, or strong coffee, and reduce the buttermilk to 1 1/4 cups.
* If you want to make sure this cake is truly Vegetarian (for yourself or vegetarian visitors), make sure to get gelatin-free buttermilk. I use either Organic Valley, which I use for MANY products, or Trauth. The latter is the easiest to find here in Ohio. Just look on the ingredients and see if it has gelatin. Trauth is also my favourite Cottage Cheese! Berkeley Farms is a great brand in California!

So, what could possibly rest atop this lovely, sinful treat? I could have chosen the old faithful Cream Cheese Icing, but I wanted more chocolate! So, I opted for a delicious Chocolate Sour Cream Icing. I found a good place to start with the infamous Nigella Lawson. But, hers was too sweet, so I modified it a bit. Thanks for the great start, Nigella!!

I also decorated the sides of the cake with dark chocolate shards that I grated with a medium-sized grater. I used 70% instead of the 80% here so as not to scare off the taster too soon with such a strong chocolate flavour. You could use any chocolate shavings you wanted (milk, white, coffee-infused, peanut butter chips and the list goes on.) or none at all. This is a great base cake to dress up any way you want! You could even fill it with icing and cherries and put a cherry jam on top for a black forest approach. The possibilities are endless!

The recipe is as follows:

Chocolate Sour Cream Icing
Should be enough to decorate one two-layer 9-inch cake. If you like a lot of icing, double this recipe!

Ingredients
- 6 ounces melted chocolate (all 70%, half 70 half 80, or whatever combination you desire. I used half 70 half 80)
- 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup sour cream (Use regular instead of reduced fat here. The latter tastes too weak for this icing.)
- 1 tsp. Pure Vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp sifted confectioner’s sugar, or more if you like it sweeter.
- water, to preference. Up to 1/3 cup.

- Chop chocolate, with a serrated knife, into small chunks. Place in heat proof bowl and place on saucepan over simmering water. Don’t let the bowl touch the water as it will burn the chocolate. Simmer over low heat until all chocolate is melted. Take off the heat and start whisking in the butter, slowly. As the mixture cools, add the sour cream and whisk until smooth. Add the vanilla and the confectioner’s sugar, a Tbsp. at a time, and make sure there are no lumps. Then, add water until you have your desired thinness. It needs to be spreadable and silky with enough body to stick to the cake. Careful not to thin it too much as it will slide off of the cake. If you do go too thin, add more confectioner’s sugar until desired consistency. Fortunately, there’s a lot of wiggle room with this icing!

So, that’s my favourite Devil’s Food Cake for the moment. I actually have some in my kitchen right now! Well, look at the time. Time for tea and cake!

Until my next food invention, see ya next time.

Much Love and Peace to Everyone,

Christa Belle (aka Sparky)

All dairy products in these recipes are from Organic Valley. All chocolate was either Jamieson’s or Lindt. Give them a try and see what YOU think!!