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This Devil’s Food Cake is rich, moist and tender! Layer with a dark chocolate ganache and chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream for a delicious cake that is fit for a birthday celebration!
This is my third chocolate birthday cake. ? Because I’m extra like that. And because the closer you get to 40, the more chocolate decadence you deserve. That’s just a fact. Brace yourselves for next year ?
This cake was supposed to be my main birthday cake but editing the 20+ hours of footage down to 13 minutes was quite the undertaking! Much like a perfectly layered cake is quite the undertaking.
It takes the right components but, mostly, it takes patience. Oh yeah, that whole thing. My journey as a cook and a pastry chef has taught me more patience in 6 years than in the previous 30. Do you know what happens when you don’t have patience layering a cake with a filling?
Your cake, along with all your hopes and dreams, end up on the floor of the walk-in refrigerator because the top layers just slid right off the bottom ones. Then you get to scrape all the hard work and the wasted ingredients off the floor while you try not to burst into tears because at any moment a line cook could come in to grab some more parsley and see you sobbing on the damp, concrete floor like a child.
Oh yeah. That is a real life chef story, peeps. And then I got to make all the components again and then get up at 3:30AM the next morning to assemble another one in time for the 2PM pick up.
Doesn’t my job sound fun!? ?
So patience AND the right components. If you choose a cake that is too soft, then the weight of the top layers will smoosh the filling and buttercream right out of the bottom ones regardless of how much patience you have.
This devil’s food cake can stand up to the weight of a tiered and layered cake. You can also bake it in baking sheets and cut out the layers if you don’t have 3 inch tall round pans. The baking sheets will also bake faster, which is a blessing.
I used a chocolate version of Italian Meringue Buttercream for this cake and a simple chocolate ganache recipe. Learn how to make Italian meringue buttercream in this post.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Devil’s Food Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 4 ¾ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ cups cocoa powder
- 1 Tablespoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 Tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 3 ¾ cups sugar
- 8 whole eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 1/3 cups buttermilk room temperature
- 1 Tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups brewed coffee room temperature
For the Ganache:
- 14 oz dark chocolate
- 6 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1½ cups cream
- 2 Tablespoons Bourbon use vanilla extract to taste instead
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line 8 inch x 3 inch pans with parchment. Or grease and line 2 baking sheet pans.
- Sift together flour, cocoa, soda, baking poser and salt. Set aside
- Make sure all your ingredients are room temperature.
- In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and yolks two at a time and beat them in well.
- Combine buttermilk, vanilla and coffee. On low speed add alternating with dry ingredients, beginning and ending with dry. Make sure not to over mix
- Pour into prepared pans (1,570 g of batter in each pan). Bake in preheated oven until a cake tester comes out with clinging crumbs, about 40 minutes.
- Cool in pans 10 minutes, then run a butter knife or offset spatula around the edges of the cake and then flip onto a wire rack to remove from the pan. Peal off the parchment. Flip over and cool completely.
- For the best results assembling a tiered cake, refrigerate the cakes until completely cool.
For the Ganache:
- Combine chocolate, corn syrup and salt in a bowl.
- Heat cream to a boil and pour over chocolate. Allow to sit for 2 minutes before whisking to emulsify. Whisk in flavoring.
- Keep on a folded kitchen towel until ready to assemble your cakes. You want to keep it warm but not hot or it will melt you buttercream as you assemble.
Got to know a lot from this!
Everything was so relatable.
Thank you for sharing!
Hey Lindsey,
Thanks for sharing this chocolate cake recipe. It looks like a piece of art. Must be hard to eat such irresistible chocolate beauty. The real struggle in this recipe is assembling the cake on point. It’s too perfect. The cake looks really moist and It is amazing!!! ????
Thanks Ashlesha! I have yet to come across anyone who can resist a slice though!
Delicious and Awesome chocolate cake, really beautiful. Thank you for sharing this beautiful information.
Oh man, I could totally feel your pain with that cake on the floor story. I felt like I was there cleaning up cake off the floor with you…and maybe seeing if I could salvage a bite that hadn’t touched the floor yet. I love a good chocolate cake, and this one looks fantastic! Your decoration skills are on point. Of course, I expected nothing less from a pastry chef in NYC. 🙂 If you happen to deliver, then I’ll place an order now. We can stay 6 feet apart of course…as long as you put this cake down and back away quickly.