Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Frosting: The Temps You Need to Know
Every month or so, I start browsing pictures and recipes of cakes. Then I can’t rest until I’ve made and eaten one. If you do the same, or if you just love a good cake for a celebration or for no reason at all, it’s good that you’ve landed here. Today we’re walking you through a magnificent devils’ food cake with a light, fluffy, yet rich chocolate mousseline icing. We’ll be following the inimitable Rose Levy Beranbaum’s recipe from her 35th anniversary version of The Cake Bible and talking about the important temperatures we’ll face along the way. Let’s get cooking!
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Do temperatures matter in cake making?
Yes, temperature matters in cake bakery! For the best mixing, Beranbaum recommends using room-temperature eggs and butter in all her batters. Using colder butter is a waste of time—it will eventually get beaten into soft submission in the mixer. However, you may as well start it at room temperature and save the wear on your motor gears. But starting with butter that is too soft or even melted just won’t do. The butter adds structure to the cake, providing a matrix for tiny air bubbles to hide and await thermal expansion during the cook.
The concept is the same in cakes as it is in cookies. If you want wide, flat cookies, you use melted butter, if you want taller, more structured cookies, you cream “solid” butter with sugar. Yes, it melts in the oven, absorbing into the flour and sugar, but it does that in a form that is already set up. Make a cake with butter that is melted or too soft and it won’t spring up as well.
Use your Thermapen ONE to check the temperature of your butter before you start mixing, looking for something between 65 and 75°F (18 and 24°C)
Cake doneness temperature
And, of course, there is the doneness of the cake itself. Tradition would have us poke the cake with a thin piece of metal or wood (a cake tester or a toothpick) and see if it comes out clean or gooey. And while that’s a great test for underdoneness, it’s a terrible test for overdoneness. An overcooked, dry cake will certainly leave a toothpick clean! Better by far is to use a high-accuracy digital thermometer like Thermapen ONE to temp the cake. If your temp is too low, you know to cook it more. If it’s too high, you know to adjust your time in your recipe (we still use timers to know when to check the cake temp) so that you get to it before it cooks needlessly.
Most cakes are done between 200 and 209°F (93 and 98°C), and these devil’s food cakes are no exception. We love a very most cake, so we aimed for the low end of that doneness spectrum, and it turned out phenomenally good. Take your cakes out of the oven, let them cool for a few minutes, then unmold them to finish cooling before icing them.
The best cake icing is mousseline
That’s an opinion, but, man, is it a solid one. (French buttercream is a close second.) Mousseline icing, also called Italian Meringue icing, is as rich and luscious as you hope any icing will be while being so light in texture that you almost have to check to see if you’ve taken a bite of it. It is what cloying, generic icings wish they could be.
Part of what gives this chocolate frosting its incredible lightness is the Italian meringue from which it’s made. Italian meringue is made by whipping egg white until they are stiff, then beating in a sugar syrup that has been cooked to soft-ball stage—235-240°F (112-116°C). The hot sugar semi-cooks the egg whites, making them firmer and more stable. (Italian meringue is considered to be the most stable of the three main meringue varieties).
Cook the syrup to 235-240°F (112-116°C), adjusting the temperature 1°F down for every 500 ft elevation above sea level you’re cooking at. Use your Thermapen to ensure you don’t cook it too hot/thick. If you pass the target temperature, add a tablespoon or so of water to the syrup to move back down the doneness-scale.
Then, before you beat the butter into the icing, make sure you’ve beaten it long enough to dissipate that heat until you get down to, at most, warm room temperature. Much warmer and you’ll break the butter, ruining your icing.
If you follow these thermal guidelines, you’re sure to end up with a successful devil’s food cake. Correctly-temped ingredients will help you achieve a perfect crumb (as is always the case with one of Rose’s cakes), cooking the cake to temperature will keep it moist, and a delicious, temperature-sensitive icing will slake all your cravings, both for the making and the eating of cake. Give this version a try and get hooked on homemade cakes! Happy cooking.
Temptingly moist devil’s food cake recipe with orange-chocolate mousseline icing
Ingredients
For the cake
- 30 g unsweetened baking chocolate
- 63 g unsweetened alkalized (Dutch process) cocoa powder
- 237 g boiling water
- 4-6 (80 g) egg yolks room temp—65-75°F (18-23°C)
- 2 (60 g) egg whites room temp—65-75°F (18-23°C)
- 60 g full-fat sour cream
- 5 g (1 tsp) vanilla extract
- 225 g bleached cake flour
- 325 g light brown sugar
- 5.5 g (1 tsp) baking soda
- 3 g salt
- 227 g unsalted butter room temp—65-75°F (18-23°C)
For the icing
- 454 g (1 lb) unsalted butter room temp—65-75°F (18-23°C)
- 5 each (150 g total) egg whites room temp—65-75°F (18-23°C)
- ⅝ tsp cream of tartar
- 200 g super fine sugar, divided (if you don't have super fine sugar, put your sugar in a higsh-speed blender and whizz it)
- zest of one orange, grated (optional, though it is very nice)
- 59 g water
- 5 g (1 tsp) vanilla extract
- 142 g dark chocolate, melted and cooled but still fluid
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C ) with a rack set in the lower third of the oven.
- Whisk together the chocolate, cocoa, and boiling water in a small bowl or measuring cup with a spout. Cover and allow to cool to room temperature. (For faster cooling, immerse the bottom of the container in an ice bath and stir to cool.)
- In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and whites, then incorporate the sour cream and vanilla.
- In a stand mixer fitter with the flat paddle, beat together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt to evenly mix them.
- Take the bowl off the mixer. Add the butter and the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and smash it in a little with the beater attachment so that when you turn the mixer on it doesn't fling flour everywhere. Reposition the bowl and mix on low until the dry ingredients are just moist.
- Raise the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl, also scraping around the inside bottom center of the bowl.
- With the mixer on medium-low speed, add the egg mixture in 2 additions, fully incorporating after each addition. The batter will be somewhat fluffy. scrape down the sides again.
- Divide the batter into 2 prepared 9 x 2" round cake pans, 645 grams of cake batter in each. Smooth the tops of the cakes with an offset spatula. (Using parchemnt rounds in the bottoms of the pans will save you grief later on.)
- Bake the cake. Set your timer for 25 minutes. When the timer sounds, check the temp of your cake in the center using your Thermapen ONE. If the cakes are below 200°F (93°C), keep cooking, setting the timer to remind you to check again soon. If they are done, take them from the oven and set the pans on a cooling rack.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then run a thin knife or spatula around the edges and turn the cakes out onto the cooling racks to finish cooling.
While the cake is baking and cooling, make the mousseline icing
- In a stand mixer bowl, cream the butter with the flat beater on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Scrape the butter into another bowl and set aside for later. Wash the mixer bowl well.
- In the degreased mixer bowl, whip together the egg whites and cream of tartar, just until foamy.
- In a small saucepan, stir 150 g of the sugar, the orange zest, and the water together. Heat on medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Keep on low heat.
- While the syrup comes up to temp, use the whisk attachment on the mixer to start beating the eggs, increasing the speed to medium-high. When soft peaks have formed, add the remaining 50 g sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Bring the syrup to a boil and cook, checking the temperature frequently with your Thermapen ONE until the temperature reaches 248-250°F (120°C), adjusted 1°F less for every 500 ft above sea level you're cooking at.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly pour the syrup into the bowl, right by the edge. Increase the mixer speed to high and beat for a few seconds, then turn the speed down to medium and beat for 2-4 minutes, letting the heat escape, until the meringue reaches 70°F (21°C)—use your Thermapen to check it periodically.
- Scrape the butter into the meringue mixture and beat on medium speed until the icing is smooth and creamy. The butter may look curdled, but keep going. The temperature should be between 68 and 70°F (20 and 21°C).
- Beat in the vanilla and the melted chocolate until the mixture is homogenous with no chocolate streaks. Scrape down the bowl and mix for one more minute.
Make your cake!
- Assemble the cakes and icing in any fashion you like, then eat it all or share it with your loved ones. Enjoy!