Whirligig-design Devil's food vintage chocolate cake recipe (1950) - Click Americana (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between chocolate cake and devil's food cake? ›

Home cooks, recipe developers, and restaurants don't always know that a Devil's food cake is different from other types of decadent chocolate cakes either, so your error is understandable. The truth is, Devil's food cake is richer, darker, and fluffier thanks to the use of cocoa powder and a bit extra baking soda.

In the canon of chocolate desserts, devil's food cake has a reputation for being the most decadent, thanks to its rich ingredients like unsweetened cocoa powder, coffee, and sour cream. It tastes intensely chocolatey and is light, fluffy, and moist.

Devil's food cake typically has coffee, sour cream, or water in the batter. While red velvet cake has tangier flavored liquids like buttermilk or vinegar. The different liquids also mean that Devil's food cakes have more moisture, which results in a more tender cake than red velvet.

The slight red tint in this cake comes from the reaction between the acid in both the buttermilk and chocolate and the alkaline base of the baking soda.

As opposed to the very light chocolate taste of a classic German chocolate cake, devil's food cake is made with unsweetened chocolate and has a much stronger chocolate flavor due to its higher cacao content.

A common misconception is that German Chocolate Cake comes from Germany. In fact, the name comes from American baker, Samuel German, who developed a type of dark baking chocolate in 1852. The baking chocolate was then named Baker's German's Sweet Chocolate in honor of German.

Baking The Devil's Food Cake

Check that the cake is done by inserting a toothpick into the center of each cake. The toothpick should have some fudgy crumbs (but no wet batter!). A toothpick with no crumbs may indicate that the cake is overcooked, which could mean a dense/dry cake.

Try switching out any water in your recipe for full-fat milk or buttermilk for a moist, decadent texture. Another ingredient that can enhance the moisture of your cake is mayonnaise. Adding a dollop of mayonnaise to your batter can help make your freshly baked cake softer with an added boost of moisture.

German chocolate cake uses a particular kind of baking chocolate as its base, one which has a milder, sweeter profile thanks in part to lecithin, a fatty substance derived from egg yolks. In contrast, classic chocolate cake recipes often use cocoa powder or darker chocolate for a richer, more intense flavor.

It had been a very long time since I had an icebox cake. In the book, Dylan calls it the Robert Redford Cake and it comes from the chapter that features recipes from the 1970s. Apparently the cake is named after Redford because its as tasty as he is sexy.

Is devils food cake the same as angel food cake? ›

Angel food's alter ego, devil's food cake, is not plain at all but comes fully dressed with dense chocolate icing over and between two round layers of chocolate cake. The cake's genealogy is also American; the first printed recipe dates to 1905.

While red velvet cake is technically a cocoa cake, there is a key difference between standard chocolate cake and red velvet cake. Chocolate cake recipes traditionally use Dutch-processed cocoa, while red velvet cake uses unprocessed cocoa, a more acidic ingredient that produces a deeper, more intense chocolate flavor.

Many people believe it got its name from being the opposite of white and fluffy angel cake, which was also first created in the United States a decade or so earlier. There are several variations of the recipe for devil's food cake, making it difficult to distinguish it from the more standard chocolate cake.

Try adding a packet of instant pudding mix into the batter after you've combined it with the eggs and oil. You can also substitute some butter for the oil in the batter, which adds a richer, creamier flavor. Adding a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract will also help elevate the flavor of your cake.

With its mellow carrot sweetness, warm notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, and rich, tangy frosting, carrot cake is simply irresistible. This traditional carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is one of our favorites.

Fudge cake packs a thicker, denser cake layer, a velvet departure from the more delicate, fluffy cake layers found in a chocolate cake. Think of the textural difference between a block of fudge and a block of chocolate. The chocolate melts in your mouth, while the fudge lingers with every chewy bite.

The cherry filling and lightly sweetened whipped cream are true to traditional black forest cake recipes. However, the genoise sponge (which gets its lift from whipped eggs and sugar) is replaced with a devil's food cake. This creates a more rich chocolate cake that pairs beautifully with cream and cherries.

German chocolate cake uses a particular kind of baking chocolate as its base, one which has a milder, sweeter profile thanks in part to lecithin, a fatty substance derived from egg yolks. In contrast, classic chocolate cake recipes often use cocoa powder or darker chocolate for a richer, more intense flavor.