Devil's Food Cake Recipe

Whew. Another year has come and go. Is it 2016 already! It barely seems like a month ago when I wrote about my trip to Taiwan. And the year before that, when I wrote about going to Melbourne's Les Misérables.

When people ask me how old I am, I instinctively blurt out 19! before reality strikes me: 19 is almost half a decade past. Time is a funny thing, when the hours are so long but the months and years seem to fly. 

I have no qualms about being 20-plus. The last few years have been some of my most fun-filled, adventurous - and delicious - years. Even the rosy lenses of nostalgia can't convince me that my teenage years spent in Singapore's education system were much fun, and my years of accumulated wisdom hint that many things are better left buried in the past.  

I used to feel that time affects everyone else but not me. Sometimes, I still do. But for better or for worse, I am - or will be in a matter of minutes - 24. There's school to start. Hospitals to get to. Old friends to catch up with and new people to get along with. Old subjects to re-read and new notes to learn. 

There's shit to be done. 

But for this minute, just one minute,

Can I just be 23? 

To a new season. 

Happy New Year everyone. 

Devil’s Food Cake
Makes one two-tiered 9-inch cake, or a four-tiered 5.5-inch cake
Original recipe by David Lebovitz

It's a tiered cake made from cocoa powder, which gives it a heady chocolate aroma. I made this to finish the staggering number of half-eaten bars of chocolate around my house, and to (hopefully) make space for new stock... New Year, new beginnings! The filling and frosting are made from an assortment of chocolate from around my house, from a half-finished bar of dark chocolate from Republica del Cacao, to milk chocolate from Cailler and topped up with Valrhona. 

No special equipment is required (although, it would definitely make my life easier). As it stands now, the worn wooden spatulas meant for stir-fry moonlight for my baking projects. I didn't even use proper cake pans. Because I like the look of tall narrow cakes, I baked this cake in stainless steel soup pots. Having a turntable would definitely help with frosting, but I don't bake nearly enough to justify that expense. 

Lebovitz suggests making the frosting with water, since the frosting is plenty rich as it is. But if you want a creamier frosting, using cream in place of the water. (I used water, and I definitely can't imagine anyone wanting the frosting to be richer.)

Ingredients
For the cake:

63g (9 tablespoons) unsweetened cocoa powder (either natural or Dutch-process, which imparts a slight difference in end product)
210g (1½ cups) cake flour* (Substitute with plain flour and cornflour in a 7:1 ratio)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon baking powder
115g (4 ounces/1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
300g (1½ cups) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
120ml (½ cup) strong coffee (or water)
120ml (½ cup) whole or low-fat milk

For the ganache frosting*:
285g (10 ounces) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
120ml (½ cup) water (or cream)
175g (¾ cup/1½ sticks) unsalted butter

*I reduced the frosting amount by 1/3, so the entire project requires only one complete block of butter (250g). But in hindsight, the cake would taste even better with more frosting. If interested in this modified quantity, use: 

190g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
80ml (1/3 cup) water (or cream)
115g unsalted butter

Steps
1. Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350F (175C).

2. Butter two 9″ x 2″ cake pans (Or two 5.5"-diameter stainless steel pots) and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.

3. To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl.

4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.)

5. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients.

6. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (If using 5.5" pots, bake them both at once, and bake for 35-45 minutes.) Cool completely before frosting.

7. To make the frosting, melt the chopped chocolate with the water (or cream) in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water.

8. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk them into the chocolate until completely melted and the ganache is smooth. Cool until spreadable, which may take about 1 hour at room temperature. (If it is too warm, the consistency gets too thin for frosting. If it's too chilled, it gets too hard. At Singapore room temperature, it is too darn hot, so I chuck it in the fridge for about 20 minutes, until a thicker consistency is reached.)

To frost the cake: 
(If using the 5.5" pots to make four tiers, you may wish to split each cake evenly into two layers. I learnt the basics of frosting here, and I learnt the toothpick trick here)

Run a knife around the inside of each of the cakes to release them from the pans. Tilt one cake out of the pan, remove the parchment paper from the bottom and invert it back onto a cake plate. Spread a good-sized layer of icing over the top. Top with the second cake layer and spread the top and sides with the remaining icing as decoratively as you want.

Good luck trying to frost cakes at room temperature in Singapore.

Storage: 
This is best the day it is made, although it’s fine the next day. Lebovitz suggests storing at room temperature under a cake dome (although for Singapore, it'll be best to leave it in the fridge). 

Modifications: 
Instead of the chocolate frosting, layering sliced bananas between the tiers of the cake sounds like a good idea, if bananas are in season (especially if you reduced the frosting quantity).

Lebovitz suggests crème anglaise would go well with a slice of cake.