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Alex Guarnaschelli is particular about food. Why shouldn’t she be? As a judge on the hit Food Network series “Chopped,” she is tasked with picking apart dishes made by some of the finest cooks across the country. Of course, Guarnaschelli is a chef in her own right, and the author of cookbooks such as “The Home Cook: Recipes to Know by Heart.” Safe to say, her opinion holds a certain amount of weight. This extends beyond the dinner plate and all the way to the dessert table.
In a conversation with fellow chef, Eric Adjepong (via the Food Network’s X page), Guarnaschelli shared her absolute favorite dessert: devil’s food cake. Of course, chocolate cake is a classic, but as ever, Guarnaschelli was keen to share specifics. According to her, the cake “…tastes chocolatey beyond” (or at least it should). She was also specific in noting that the cake should “not [taste] like a stick of butter and not like a gallon of baking soda. Perfectly baked.” Her preferred accompaniment? Whipped cream, not sweetened.
As Guarnaschelli notes in her exchange with chef Adjepong, this cake is purely American. It dates back as far as 1902, when it was included in a book titled “Mrs. Rorer’s New Cook Book” by Sarah Tyson Rorer. Devil’s food cake got its name for its downright sinfully chocolate-forward taste, and was often seen as the counterbalance to the super-fluffy angel food cake. Plus, giving desserts quirky names seems to have been quite the trend in days of yore. But what, exactly, brings the devil to this chocolate cake? let’s dig in.
Read more: 11 Store-Bought Chocolate Cakes, Ranked Worst To Best
What Makes Devil’s Food Cake So Devious(ly Delicious)
Slice of devil’s food cake – Penpak Ngamsathain/Getty Images
Generally speaking, there are two recipe specifications that make devil’s food cake distinct from other chocolate cakes. For starters, where many other chocolate cakes use solid chocolate to bring chocolate flavor, devil’s food cake uses cocoa powder. While cocoa powder is more bitter than semisweet solid chocolate, it also brings a more intense chocolate flavor, especially if you use natural rather than Dutch cocoa powder. This is further intensified by the second signature ingredient: baking soda.
Of course, many cake recipes call for baking soda as a leavening agent (though baking soda is also a well-known multipurpose tool in the kitchen). But devil’s food cake recipes tend to use higher amounts of the ingredient. This serves a dual purpose: Making the cake super light and fluffy, and bringing out the colors of your cocoa powder. Since baking soda is a base and cocoa powder is acidic, using a higher level of baking soda cancels out the acidity and darkens the color of the cocoa powder. Other additives, such as coffee, can help add more depth to the flavor profile.
Additionally, many devil’s food cake recipes use vegetable oil rather than butter, since vegetable oil is neutral. As Alex Guarnaschelli says, devil’s food cake shouldn’t taste like butter. However, she warns about some pitfalls even in her adoration of the dessert, noting that a perfect devil’s food cake doesn’t use too much baking soda. This is pretty safe advice since baking soda, if used in excess, can make your baked goods bitter. Make sure to keep your recipe perfectly balanced and not entirely sinful.
Read the original article on Chowhound.
