devil’s food cake

devil’s food cake [dev-uhls food keyk] noun

A counterpart to the light, airy angel food cake, devil’s food cake is classically a two-layer cake filled and covered with frosting, usually chocolate or fluffy white icing. This dessert can be found in American cookbooks dating back as early as the 1920’s. The cake was originally made with natural cocoa, and baking soda was always found in the batter, creating a red tint, hence the name. The liquid component varies – it can be anything from water, to hot water, to buttermilk, milk or sour cream. Recipes exist with both natural and Dutch-process cocoa as well as unsweetened or bittersweet and semisweet chocolates melted and added to the batter. Today, this term often refers to any dark chocolate layer cake such as our Easy Chocolate Cake.