Devils Food Chocolate Cake David Lebovitz

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE

Steps:

• Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Butter two 9″ x 2″ cake pans and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper.

MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE

Steps:

• Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and line the base of two 9-inch cake pans with waxed paper.
• Sift together the cocoa, flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
• In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until fully combined.
• Combine the coffee and milk. Stir half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir in all of the coffee and milk. Add remaining flour mixture, mix until smooth.
• Pour batter in prepared pans. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean. Watch closely, chocolate cakes dry out quickly with overbaking. Cool in pans about 5 minutes. Remove cake layers from pans and place on wire racks to cool completely.
• Frosting: Beat butter until fluffy and smooth. Add sifted powdered sugar, beating until combined. Add peppermint extract to taste and green food coloring as desired. Stir in chocolate pieces. Frost cake layers.
• To decorate as suggested, I carefully broke pieces off sugar cones until they were about 3 1/2 inches and, using my cookie scoop, made small scoops of frosting for mini "ice cream" cones to top cake. Serve at room temperature.

DEVIL'S FOOD CHOCOLATE CAKE (DAVID LEBOVITZ)

Steps:

• 1. Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 2. Butter two 9″ x 2″ cake pans and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. 3. To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. 4. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, or by hand, beat together the butter and sugar about 5 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. (If using a standing electric mixer, stop the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.) 5. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, the add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients. 6. Divide the batter into the two prepared cake pans and bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting. 7. To make the frosting, melt the chopped chocolate with the water (or cream) in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water. 8. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisk them into the chocolate until completely melted and the ganache is smooth. Cool until spreadable, which may take about 1 hour at room temperature. To frost the cake: Run a knife around the inside of each of the cakes which will help release them from the pans. Tilt one cake out of the pan, remove the parchment paper from the bottom and invert it back onto a cake plate. Spread a good-sized layer of icing over the top. Top with the second cake layer and spread the top and sides with the remaining icing as decoratively as you want. Storage: Cake is best the day it is made, although it's fine the next day. Store at room temperature under a cake dome. Just be sure to keep cake out of the sun in the meantime.