Devil's Food Cake

Devil's Food Cake

As Nigella Lawson said “Forget the name, this cake is heavenly. The crumb is tender, the filling and frosting luscious”. Very true, Nigella. I tried this recipe today as it’s my husband’s birthday and we thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful of this decadent cake.

Ingredients

For the cake:

½ cup best-quality cocoa powder, sifted

½ cup (packed) dark brown sugar

1 cup boiling water

125 gms soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)

¾ cup superfine sugar

1½ cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

Frosting:

½ cup water

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

175 gms unsalted butter, cubed

300 grams best-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/350°F.

Line the bottoms of two 20cm / 8inch round sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.

Put the cocoa and 100g / half cup dark muscovado sugar into a bowl with a bit of space to spare, and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix, then set aside.

Cream the butter and caster sugar together, beating well until pale and fluffy. Then stir the flour, baking powder and bicarb together in another bowl, and set aside for a moment.

Dribble the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar – mixing all the while – then drop in 1 egg, quickly followed by a scoopful of flour mixture, then the second egg.

Keep mixing and incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cake, then finally mix and fold in the cocoa mixture, scraping its bowl well with a spatula.

Divide this batter between the 2 prepared tins and put in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Take the tins out and leave them on a wire rack for 5–10 minutes, before turning the cakes out to cool.

When the cakes are in the oven, start preparing the frosting: put the water, 30g / 2 tablespoons muscovado sugar and 175g / 1 ½ sticks butter in a pan over a low heat to melt.

When this mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that all the chocolate is hit with heat, then leave for a minute to melt before whisking till smooth and glossy.

Leave for about 1 hour, whisking now and again – by which time the cakes will be cooled, and ready for the frosting.

Set one of the cooled cakes, with its top side down, on a cake stand or plate, and spread with about a third of the frosting, then top that with the second cake, regular way up, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides, swirling away with your spatula. You can smoothen it with a palette knife or you can make swirls.