Homemade Triple Layer Devil's Food Cake

It should be clear by now that I LOVE to plan parties!  

And after deciding on a theme, I next tackle the cake! 

After all, what would a birthday party be without cake?!!!

Complete with special candles to blow out!

So for Livy, I made a triple layer Devil's Food cake:)

 This cake starts with cake flour...

...and if you don't have any on hand, you can make it!

2 Tbsp Cornstarch + 7/8 cup AP Flour= 1 cup Cake Flour 

You will also need some good chocolate.

Let's get started!

Recipe: Triple Layer Devil's Food Cake

Source: Cooks Illustrated

Makes three 8-inch cakes

Regular, or natural, cocoa like Hershey's can be used with good results, though the cakes will bake up a bit drier, redder, and with slightly less chocolate flavor.

Ingredients

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups water (boiling)
• 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus extra for greasing pans
• 1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, grease three 8-inch cake pans with butter and line bottom of each pan with parchment paper round. Combine chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Sift together flours, baking soda, and salt onto large sheet parchment or waxed paper; set aside.

 

2. Place butter in bowl of standing mixer and beat at medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add brown sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Reduce speed to medium; add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined, about 10 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl. With mixer on low, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture. Repeat, ending with flour mixture; beat until just combined, about 15 seconds. Do not overbeat. Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix gently to thoroughly combine.

 

3. Divide batter evenly among cake pans, smooth batter to edges of pan with rubber spatula. If baking three 8-inch cakes, place two pans on lower-middle rack and one on upper-middle rack. Bake until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes for 8-inch cakes. Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around pan perimeter to loosen. Invert cakes onto large plate; peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.

  

To ice this cake, I used a cream cheese frosting which was perfect:)

FYI, the cake can be frozen beforehand- 

defrost at room temperature, uncovered for 1-2 hrs & then ice!

Here is Livy digging into her slice...

...and as you can see from this chocolate cake smile, 

the birthday girl was pleased!

Happy baking & thanks for stopping by,

Tiffany

"7 Layers Thick!"

One of our favorite Lucy episodes is "Job Switching"- Olivia has most of the episode memorized and the kids love the scene where the rice boils over and Lucy makes "swee swees"!  The scene where Fred reveals his "...devil's food cake, a big juicy one, seven layers thick" is hilarious- Ricky's repsonse is to ask, "What happened to the other 6 layers?"!!!  As a result, 'Ricky's' standard response to any of my baking muffs has been, "What happened to the other 6 layers?":)

This past weekend was 'Ricky's' birthday so I opted to make a chocolate devil's food cake, like Fred, in honor of this momentous occasion:)  I was trying out a new recipe and at first thought the cake layers looked a bit flat, earning me a traditional, "What happened to the other 6 layers?"!

However, once assembled there were no complaints- nestled in coffee buttercream frosting (not mixed in & baked with Fred's cake!) it looked lovely and tasted even better than expected:)

So without further ado, here is the recipe, courtesy of Cooks Illustrated (best cake recipes ever!):

Velvet Devil's Food Cake with Coffee Buttercream Frosting:

Ingredients:
Velvet Devil's Food Cake:
1/2 cup natural cocoa powder,
2 instant espresso powder or instant coffee,
1 cup boiling water,
2 tsp vanilla extract,
12 tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda,
1/2 tsp salt

Coffee Buttercream Frosting:
1 tbsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee,
1 tbsp coffee liqueur
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 egg yolk (beaten) or 2 tbsp beaten egg

Instructions:

1. For the Cake: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8-by-1 1/2-inch round baking pans with shortening. Line pan bottoms with waxed or parchment paper; grease paper as well. Dust pans with flour; tap out excess.
2. 2. Mix cocoa and instant coffee in small bowl; add boiling water and mix until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in vanilla.
3. 3. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in sugar; beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
4. 4. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. With mixer on lowest speed, add about 1/3 of dry ingredients to batter, followed immediately by about 1/3 of cocoa mixture; mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into batter. Repeat process twice more. When batter appears blended, stop mixer and scrape bowl sides with rubber spatula. Return mixer to low speed; beat until batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
5. 5. Divide batter evenly between pans. With rubber spatula, run batter to pan sides and smooth top. Bake cakes until they feel firm in center when lightly presesd anad skewer comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 23 to 30 minutes. Tranfer pans to wire racks; cool for 20 minutes. Run knife around perimeter of each pan, invert cakes onto racks, and peel off paper liners. Reinvert cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting.
6. 6. For the Buttercream Frosting: Mix instant coffee, coffee liqueur, and vanilla in small cup until coffee dissolves; set aside. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat 3 minutes longer. Add coffee mixture and egg to frosting; beat until frosting mounds around beaters in a fluffy mass, 3 to 5 minutes longer. Apply frosting onto first cake layer and spread with a long metal spatula, top with second cake layer, top second layer with frosting, spread and then frost sides.

Hope you enjoy this special cake & thanks for stopping by,
Tiffany