The Devil’s food cake has a rich and dense moist texture, and is usually a triple layer sandwich cake with fudge and buttercream icing. A high sugar nightmare of tasty tasty death…
Where did “Devil’s Food” come from? Origin stories…
There are two possible origin stories. The most plausible of which seems to be that it was created as a reaction to “Angel’s food cake.”
Invented in the 1880’s, Angel’s Food is a light and airy fat free, whipped egg-white based vanilla “foam cake” sponge with a light vanilla glaze style icing.
The two cakes were often written side by side in cookbooks on the same double page. After all, Devil’s food cake uses up those left over egg yolks!
Or, maybe it was because chocolate sponge in the 1890’s was made with raw cocoa. This has a reddish hue rather than the brown we know from the more modern “dutched” cocoa we use today.
Raw cocoa also turns red in the presence of acid. Acidic buttermilk or vinegar were used to activate the alkaline baking soda.
Both of these factors combined to give the baked cake a crimson “devilish look”
Some say it’s because people added beetroot to the mixture to add density. Again, giving the cake a reddish hue. However, that’s more the origin story of Red Velvet cake than Devils’ food.
So, whatever happened back at the turn of the 19th century, today, a Devil’s food cake is well known as a decadent and indulgent forkful.
It’s three layer dense chocolate explosion, so much so that it even has an American “day of celebration” on May 19th every year!
The Burning question – How to make it Low Carb?
Well, for the cake part, I’d recommend either:
- Two-nuts Chocolate Torte or if you’d like something a little lighter,
- Rusty’s Chocolate Torte
For the icing and filling, I’d suggest filling with either:
and of course, drizzle with a chocolate fudge glaze.
Whichever options you choose, this makes a great celebration cake!
