Devil's Food White-Out Cake -- Tuesdays with Dorie

Thank you to Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater who picked Dorie's Devil's Food White-Out Cake for this week's edition of Tuesdays with Dorie! This is the cover cake of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home To Yours -- and we finally made it!

I was curious about the name "Devil's Food Cake" there are lots of theories out there -- one being that this is the opposite of the ultralight "Angel Food Cake" and others being that this was called Devil's Food because it used to be red, colored from being made with beets and cocoa. Some people say that true Devil's Food Cake and Red Velvet Cake were the same cake originally. Other people say that the cake was created by the Waldorf Astoria in the 1950s but the first references of the cake in cookbooks date back to the early 1900s. The cake eventually started being colored red with food coloring, and then this cake went out of style in the 1970s when red dye was linked to cancer. When it reemerged it was a black cake with no red food color and a deep dark chocolate cake is what most people today traditional think of today when Devil's Food Cake is mentioned.

This cake came together easily, my only change was to use semisweet chocolate instead of bittersweet. The first few chocolate TWD recipes I made I went out of my way to buy bittersweet chocolate since that was what the recipes called for, then I realized I don't really like bittersweet chocolate, and the kids don't like it either, so I'm feeling less guilty about diverging from the recipe to make the end results more palatable to our little family. No more tossed out bittersweet chocolate treats!

I was really nervous about the frosting, especially after last week and really not enjoying the egginess of the Floating Islands, here we go with the egg whites again! I actually had the four eggs in my hands thinking, do I do this, or just make a cream cheese frosting that I know we would love. I went for it. I love being challenged in the kitchen, learning new techniques, seeing if I can make a recipe work. This recipe worked!


I have a weird thing with liking to use plastic mixing bowls, I have a nice set of Cuisinart stainless steel mixing bowls but I just like my plastic ones. Anyway, I had nice egg white peaks in my plastic mixing bowl, my syrup was boiling away on the stove, I was going back and forth checking the temperature, then I called my husband over to help me pour the syrup in to the egg white while I was mixing. He said, "isn't this going to melt the plastic bowl?" Oh my goodness I felt so stupid! My mind raced for a few seconds, do I quickly transfer to a metal bowl (which I know you should always do the egg whites in anyway, don't tell me) then I worried they would deflate if I were to transfer them, by that time my candy thermometer had jumped to 250 and I knew I'd better do something fast, so I just figured I slowly pour it into the plastic bowl, and if we melted, we melted. Can I blame a blonde moment even though I'm a brunette? I was blonde as a child, and this is a 'childhood favorite' type of cake, right? Am I making any sense? Nah. Oh-well :)

Anyway, no problems with my amazing blue plastic bowl. But I know, toss the plastic bowls, toss them, right? I just can't let go...

This frosting was WONDERFUL! I could not believe how beautiful and sturdy and marshmallowy it was. I loved it and will be using it again for sure. So easy to work with!



No layers and no chocolate crumbs for me. I decided this would be the perfect cake to try out my new Wilton Heart Tasty Fill Cake Pan Set with -- and it was! I was planning on doing the crumbs when I started, but after baking, the cakes weren't very high and I didn't think I would be able to cut off enough without damaging the heart tunnel.

I loved the little heart tunnel, so cute. I am totally happy with this cake pan set. The finish is much nicer than the Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill set that I did the Berry Surprise Cake with (although I do still like that set). I hope everyone had as much fun as I did making our TWD treat of the week, although I think I am on chocolate overload!