'I Reject the Devil' Food Cake

Devil's Food Cake is a very rich, moist and scrumptious layered chocolate cake, smothered in an equally rich and delicious chocolate icing or ganache. But as a Christian girl, I reject the devil in my life, hence the 'I Reject the Devil' in my title. But the cake itself still follows the principles of a traditional Devil's Food Cake - even though it tastes heavenly! (yes, I just had to say it!) Why not 'Angel Food Cake' you ask? Well that's an entirely different cake made with egg whites so that when you cut into it, you get a fluffy white cloud. It's usually served with whipped cream and berries and is the total opposite of this cake. This recipe comes from Nigella Lawson's book, Kitchen and although it has a simple recipe and method, it produces a cake deep in flavour. Usually, whenever I make this cake, I do not include the icing because I'm not a big icing fan. But on this occasion it was my brother's birthday and I didn't want him to cut into two random plain layers of chocolate cake. So I had a go at the icing which needs like an hour to set. I must admit, after not seeing any change in the thickness after 30 minutes, I got scared. However, I quickly realised my problem: the kitchen was too warm. I did have the cakes in the oven, a lasagne sauce bubbling away and my own body temperature adding to the heat. So when I opened the window and left the icing nearby, it quickly thickened before the hour was up. That's the thing with baking, we have to remember that it's a science, and just like in my dreaded A-level chemistry class, when most of my experiments went wrong, I had to evaluate why things weren't going a certain way, looking at the conditions of my environment. The icing turned out to be the glossiest thing I had ever seen and really beautified this cake. Too beautiful to cut into, but alas the birthday boy had to do it, and even had a cheeky scoop of vanilla ice cream with his slice.

To start this cake, I pre-heated the oven to 180 degrees and buttered and lined two sandwich tins with grease-proof paper.

In a medium sized bowl, I placed 50g of cocoa powder, 100g of dark muscovado sugar and 250ml of freshly boiled water from a kettle. 

You will find some recipes that will use actual chocolate rather than powder, but using powder is easier because you don't have to worry about melting anything in a microwave or over hot water. You will also find some recipes that use milk rather than water. So I whisked the contents of this bowl and left them to the side. 

Looked like something Augustus Gloop would fall into. 

Now that the chocolate element of the cake was done, I moved onto the sponge. In the standalone mixer I creamed 125g of butter with 150g of sugar until it was pale and light in texture.

Now in another medium sized bowl, I put in 225g of plain flour, 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder and 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and quickly mixed this together. This was also placed to the side for a minute. 

Going back to my creamed butter and sugar, I added in two teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Then with the mixer on, I added in one of my eggs followed by a few tablespoons of the flour mixture, then my last egg followed with the rest of the flour mixture.

This was mixed together until all the ingredients were fully incorporated.

All that was left to do now was add the chocolatey mixture into the plain vanilla batter to transform it into something incredible. So I poured in, what was essentially hot chocolate, into the batter.

Using my spatula, I folded this together until the chocolate was fully mixed together. You must make sure you have mixed in all the chocolate properly, otherwise you will get a marbled cake. You can still use your mixer to do this, as I have done in the past, just make sure not to over mix the batter otherwise you will get a dense cake that is not so light crumbly. 

I cannot deny that this batter is gorgeous, and that I felt like drinking it through a straw, but it had to go into the oven to become cake. So I divided it equally between my sandwich tins.

I slid the tins into the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, I checked to see if a toothpick came out clean when I poked them in the middle. They actually didn't so I left them for around five minutes longer and then they were fine. It's best to check after five minute intervals if yours are not ready. 

These were left to cool completely so that the icing would not just melt everywhere once they came in contact with them. 

Now, like Nigella suggests in her book, I got started with the icing while the cakes were in the oven. This involved me putting 125ml of water in a medium pan, with 30g of dark muscovado sugar and 175g of butter.

On the lowest heat, I melted this together on the hob until everything was liquid. 

When this golden liquid started to bubble, I turned off the hob and added in 300g of dark chocolate that I had finely chopped with a mezzaluna.

Then I swirled the pan around gently so that the chocolate could melt in the heat of the hot liquid. 

Once all the chocolate had melted, I whisked it together so it could form a deep, shiny chocolate colour. You can even see the reflection of my phone inside this chocolate mirror. 

I then put this to the side, while I took care of the cakes in the oven and got on with making the rest of dinner. Nigella says to whisk "now and again when you're passing the pan". Being that I didn't leave the kitchen, that was probably every ten minutes, being a paranoid Patsy. It was after 30 minutes that I had deeped that the icing was not thick enough to even be called an icing. I read over the method again and again, checking that I got all the measurements right, that I had got the order right, and nothing was wrong. I felt the pan and it was still warm, too warm to be completely cool in under 30 minutes. So this was when I had my scientist moment and quickly opened up the window and left the icing near the windowsill. When next I "passed" the pan, I gave it a whisk and it was magic!

The icing had thickened! I was so happy! And there were still over ten more minutes until its hour was up. 

When it was time to assemble the cakes, I had to slice the tops of them off so they had a nice flat top. Makes the cakes sit on top of each other better and the overall cake looks more appealing when it doesn't have a wonky bulged top. So the bottom layer went onto a plate and a good third of icing went on top of this, and I spread it out with my palette knife.

Then the top layer of the cake was sat on top. I then scooped out the rest of the icing on top and spread this over the top and sides with my palette knife. I then used the palette knife to smooth the sides and put some swirls on the top of the cake. Looked divine.

This cake did look stunning, if I do say so myself, and I didn't want to add anything to it, but for the birthday boy, we had to stick in candles and I used some silver balls to write out his name. But I made sure to do a photo-shoot before that happened. This is the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten, both with and without the frosting. There is one like it at Waitrose, but homemade cake is so much better. It is so moist, that even after a couple of days in an airtight container, it was still good. And the leftover icing, well I used a banana to scrape it out the bowl and ate it. It's everything you want in a cake, and if you're a chocoholic, in your life.  

Serves: 8-12 people

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Baking Time: 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

    For the Cake:

• 50g Cocoa Powder, sifted 
• 100g Dark Muscovado Sugar 
• 250ml Boiling Water 
• 125g Unsalted Butter, softened 
• 150g Caster Sugar 
• 225g Plain Flour
• 1/2tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 2tsp Vanilla Extract 
• 2 Eggs 

    For the Icing:

• 125ml Water 
• 30g Dark Muscovado Sugar 
• 175g Unsalted Butter
• 300g Dark Chocolate, finely chopped

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees and butter and line two sandwich tins with grease-proof paper. 
2. In a medium sized bowl, put in the cocoa powder, muscovado sugar and boiling water and whisk together. Put this to the side while you get on with the cake batter
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and light in texture. This can be done in a standalone mixer, with an electric hand whisk, or by hand with a wooden spoon. 
4. In another separate medium sized bowl, place in the flour, baking powder and bicarb and mix together. 
5. In the large creamed bowl, add the vanilla extract. Then, while mixing, crack in an egg, followed by a few tablespoons of the flour mixture making sure it's fully mixed before adding in the last egg. Add the rest of the flour mixture, mixing very well until it's fully incorporated. 
6. Take your hot chocolate mix and pour this into the cake batter and fold this in until the chocolate is completely mixed in. 
7. Divide the batter equally into your sandwich tins and bake for 30 minutes. Check the cakes are ready with a skewer or toothpick, it should come out clean. When the cakes are ready, leave them to completely cool in the tin or wire rack. 
8. To make the icing, pour the water in a medium sized pan along with the dark muscovado sugar and butter. On low, melt this gently on the hob. 
9. When everything is melted and the mixture starts to bubble, remove from the heat and add in the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan carefully so the chocolate can melt. Quickly whisk together until it's smooth and chocolatey. 
10. Leave the icing in a cool place for about an hour, whisking every now and again until it has thickened up and is super glossy. 
11. When you are ready to assemble, place the bottom layer of cake on a plate or stand and spread on 1/3 of the icing. Then take the top layer of cake and spread the remaining icing on the top and sides, smoothing out with a crank spatula or palette knife. You can also make some swirls on the top if you like, design it in whichever way you would like.