Devil’s Food Cake ~ Step by Step | For The Gourmet Seven

Updated on February 1, 2012

The First day of the month February, and as a prelude to the Valentine’s Day, here I’m to tempt the devil in all of you with this luscious Devil’s Food Cake which I baked for The Gourmet Seven.This is the first time I went for a frosting on a cake and my kids were very much impressed. In fact they were the ones to do the frosting on this cake. So do forgive if it looks imperfect. TH asked me twice “Did you make it”? to ensure, I’m not sure of what though. This month we, The Gourmet Seven raided the much searched food space BBC : Food and I chose this recipe as it was a  Nigella’s recipe and I like all her recipes as they are fail proof and has always come out well for me.

I actually thought of making this cake without the frosting, but you know it won’t look Gourmet then and I did promise that Gourmet food is possible at home. I hope you all will attempt this cake, in case you have not already and enjoy this with your family and friends. Now off to the cake now…

Devil’s Food Cake

You’ll need:

• All Purpose Flour – 225 gms
• Cocoa powder – 50 gms
• Dark Brown Sugar – 100 gms
• Castor Sugar – 150 gms
• Eggs – 2
• Butter – 125 gms
• Boiling water – 250 ml
• Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp
• Baking Powder – 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla Essence – 2 tsp

For the Frosting:

• Dark Brown Sugar – 5 tbsp
• Butter – 150 gms
• Dark Chocolate – 200 gms
• Water – 100 ml

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line the bottoms of two 20cm/8in sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.

1. Sieve together all purpose flour, baking soda and baking powder together.

2. In a vessel place cocoa powder and dark brown sugar and pour the boiling water and whisk to mix well for the sugar to dissolve and keep it aside.

3. I powdered the granulated sugar instead of using castor sugar. Beat together butter and sugar till pale and fluffy in a separate bowl.

4. Now dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar – mixing all the while – then crack in one egg, quickly followed by a scoop of the flour mixture, then the second egg. Keep mixing after each addition.

5. Incorporate the rest of the flour mixture little by little mixing it all the while.

6. Finally mix and fold in the liquid mixture of cocoa and brown sugar to the batter and give a final mix with a spatula.

7. I did not have 2 pans also my oven is not big enough to bake 2 pans at the same time. So baked it twice. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30-40 min or till a skewer comes out clean.

8. Take the tin out and leave them on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes, then turn the cake out, peel off the parchment paper and set aside to cool.

9. While the cakes are in the oven put the water, dark brown sugar and butter into a pan over a low heat and mix until melted. When this mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped dark chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with heat, then leave for a minute to melt. Once melted, whisk until smooth and glossy. Set the frosting aside for about an hour, whisking now and again – when you’re passing the pan – by which time the cakes will be cooled, and ready for the frosting.

10. Place one cake and spread a liberal amount of the frosting on the top. Now place the other cake over the first one and spread the remaining frosting over the top and on the sides. A spatula will be good to do this. The frosting here may not look smooth here as this was done my my kids.  I enjoyed watching them do this, licking and laughing all the while.

and finally cleaning up the cake too. It was so rich, chocolaty and perfect for the 2 little devils at home as they enjoyed it a lot. My H who does not love sweet things so much cleared a quarter of the cake too. So how did you all like my attempt at Gourmet Food and me playing the Baker for the Gourmets….

Notes:

I used unsalted homemade butter for this cake.

Oven timings may vary accordingly.

It took 45 mins. for the cake to get done in my oven.

The frosting might appear a bit runny upon cooking which got me worried but thickened well as it got cooled off.