The Best Devil's Food Cake Recipe (2024)

My Devil’s Food Cake recipe is rich, fudgy, and dangerously chocolatey! It’s also simple to make and essentially foolproof! Today I’m walking you through all the steps, be sure to check out the how-to video in the recipe card!

What is the Difference Between Chocolate Cake and Devil’s Food Cake?

Leading with this question because it’s one I had myself. What’s the point of adding another chocolate cake to the blog, anyway, when I already have an incredible, 5-star chocolate cake recipe?

After a bit of digging I learned that devil’s food cake is in a class of its own. While it’s known for being fudgier, moister, and richer than classic chocolate cake, people seem to widely disagree on what ingredients are critical to makes it so. Some recipes call strictly for melted chocolate, others for natural cocoa, and still others for Dutch-process. So which is right!?

After far too many hours of devil’s food cake research, I came to the following conclusions:

• It should be plush, velvety, and more fudgy and moist than a classic chocolate cake. Soft and melt-in-your-mouth, yes, but not quite so fluffy as many other cakes.
• The chocolate flavor should be more intense than a classic chocolate cake. While any frosting will work on this cake, a thick and fudgy chocolate one is preferred (coming soon!).
• Sour cream played an important role in many early recipes and I felt it belonged here as well, as did Dutch-process cocoa.
• While baking powder may make an appearance, baking soda should be the primary leavener.
• It is not the same as red velvet cake. I was shocked to find at least one source claiming that it was and felt strongly that I should set the record straight here. Nope!

With these parameters in mind, I set about developing the best devil’s food cake recipe. It took weeks to get things just right, but I’m so excited to share this one with you today. Let’s get to it!

Ingredients

Many of today’s ingredients are basic pantry staples, but let’s talk about a few of them, including what role they play in the chemistry of making the perfect cake:

• Flour. I specifically developed my recipe to be made with all-purpose flour. I have not tried it with cake flour but think it could work if substituted properly. I do not recommend any other kind of flour, such as self-rising flour.
• Sugar. A blend of granulated sugar and brown sugar give this cake the best flavor.
• Butter. Most of my cake recipes use a blend of oil and butter to maximize both flavor and moisture. However, for this fudgy recipe we have plenty of moisture added elsewhere, so we’re going for all flavor with all butter.
• Cocoa powder. While many recipe developers disagree on the best chocolate to use when making devil’s food cake, I found that this recipe works best with Dutch-process cocoa powder to attain its signature deep, rich chocolate flavor. While “natural” cocoa powder is highly acidic, Dutch-process has been treated and neutralized. It also yields a darker color for the cake. We’ll “bloom” the cocoa powder in our milk & water on the stovetop for ultimate chocolate intensity in this cake.
• Milk & Water. For the perfect texture, a blend of whole milk and water works best. This is the liquid we’ll heat to bloom our cocoa powder.
• Coffee. Coffee doesn’t make the cake taste like coffee, but it does enhance the rich chocolate flavor. You have several options here. 1) Omit the water above and use your favorite coffee instead. 2) Use water and a teaspoon of instant coffee. 3) If you have neither coffee nor instant coffee you can just use water. Even without the enhancement of coffee flavor the cake will still taste good.
• Sour cream. Sour cream plays an important role in this cake. It adds moisture (thanks to its fat content) and the acidity helps to activate the baking soda.

This is just an overview of some of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Devil’s Food Cake

1. Combine the butter, milk, water, cocoa powder and instant coffee in a saucepan. Cook until the butter is melted then bring the mixture to a boil. This not only “blooms” our cocoa (releasing its full, intense chocolate flavor) but it also melts our butter, which also helps the cake’s flavor.
2. Remove your chocolate mixture from the stove and let it cool. Meanwhile, whisk sugars and dry ingredients together in a large heatproof bowl.
3. Add the chocolate mixture to your dry ingredients and stir until smooth and combined.
4. Stir in the sour cream, then add the eggs and vanilla and stir until smooth.

Baking The Devil’s Food Cake

1. Evenly pour the finished batter into two round baking pans (I use 8″ but include notes in the recipe for different sized pans and even for cupcakes!) and bake.
2. Check that the cake is done by inserting a toothpick into the center of each cake. The toothpick should have some fudgy crumbs (but no wet batter!). A toothpick with no crumbs may indicate that the cake is overcooked, which could mean a dense/dry cake.
3. When the cake is finished baking allow it to cool in the pan for 15 minutes then run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen it.
4. Carefully invert the cakes onto a cooling rack to finish cooling (careful, the pans are still hot!). Let the cakes cool completely before covering with frosting.

Frosting

I used a chocolate fudge frosting that I’ll be sharing later this week, but here are a few other options that are great with this cake:

• Chocolate Frosting
• Chocolate Buttercream
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
• Brown Butter Frosting (I iced this cake with brown butter frosting for Zach’s birthday at his request, the combination was incredible!).

Frequently Asked Questions

See Also

Keto and Dairy Free Mini Pumpkin Pies {No Crust} | 5 Ingredient RecipeFlädlesuppe German Pancake Soup RecipePecan Sticky Buns | Swanky RecipesWelsh Cookies (aka Welsh Cakes) Recipe

More Recipes For Chocolate Lovers

Enjoy!

Let’s bake together! Make sure to check outthe how-to VIDEO in the recipe card!