How are you going to share the love the Valentine’s Day?  How do you share the love every other day of the year?

At the restaurant, this Saturday night’s reservations are already fully booked.  We’re going to be packed to the gills with love birds.  We’ve got people calling trying to pull the VIP card.  What’s that?  Oh.. you happen to think you and the chef are bffs this week and you’d like a table for two at 8?  Tough luck.  Really…

But Friday night…?  Not a soul.

What a day Valentine’s Day is… so ripe with expectations, how can you satisfy?

I remove myself from the whole game.  There are so many other gorgeous days of my life that I prefer to share love with the world around me.  How do I do it?  It usually involves butter, brown sugar and cocoa powder, but that’s just my style.

Sometimes love is as simple as sending someone a goofy postcard.  As deliberate as looking someone in the eye and smiling as you pass on the street.  As tiring as staying up extra late to make your Mom a birthday cake.  We share more love than we might realize.  Everyday, in the little things.  Let’s remember that this week.  Let’s remember that always.  It’s those little touches that make this life seem loads brighter.

I made this triple layer Devil’s Food Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for my Mom’s birthday.  My Dad aptly dubbed it “The Wall”.  I baked the smooth batter up in a single 9×13-inch pan, wrapped and froze the sucker, and the next day sliced it (still frozen) into thirds.  The layers measures 4×9-inches, producing a rather brick shaped cake.  Feel free to bake this cake in three 8-inch rounds or two 9-inch rounds.

What else do you need to know about this cake?

It’s moist, and beautifully flavored.  The coffee and dark brown sugars work wonders with the cocoa powder.  The chocolate frosting is an absolute dream, and fresh raspberries send the whole cake over the top.  Thin slices of “The Wall” will serve about 10 to 12 chocolate loving people.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and cake frosting tips after the recipe!

Devils Food Cake

makes a three layer 8-inch round cake

or a two layer 9-inch round cake

or a one layer 9×13-inch sheet cake

adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook

Print this recipe!

1 cup hot brewed coffee

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)

1/2 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar

3/4 cups granulated sugar

4 eggs

Put racks in the upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.    Butter cake pans and line bottom with rounds of parchment or wax paper.  Butter paper and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess.

Whisk together boiling coffee and cocoa powder in a medium bowl until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla.  Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt into another bowl.

Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium sped until pale and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in flour and cocoa mixtures alternating in 3 batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (batter may look slightly curdled).

Divide batter among pans and smooth tops.  Place two pans in middle of oven and one pan in bottom of oven.  Do not put top pans directly over bottom pans.  Stagger them in the oven so the heat circulates.  If you’re baking with a 9×13-inch sheet pan, feel free to bake on the middle rack.  Bake, switching positions of pans half way through baking, until a wooden skewer inserted in enter of cakes comes out clean and layers begin to pull away from the sides of pan, 20- 25 minutes.  25-30 minutes for 9-inch rounds and 35-40 minutes for a 9×13-inch cake.

Cool layers in pans on racks for 10 minutes, then invert onto racks, remove paper and cool completely.  I covered my 9×13-inch cake with plastic wrap while still in the pan, and put it in the freezer to rest until I had time to frost it the next day.

Once completely cool, put one layer right side up on a cake place and spread with about 1 cup of chocolate buttercream frosting.  Top with fresh raspberries and add another layer of cake.  Add another cup of frosting, fresh raspberries and the final cake later.  Top with buttercream and frost the top and sides of the cake.

If using a 9×13-inch pan, trim the sides slightly, and measure out the long side into three 4-inch sections.  Slice, creating three 4×9-inch layers.  Frost!

Notes:

These cake layers came be made two days in advance and kept, well wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature.  It can also be frozen for up to a week.  I kept the cake frozen while I trimmed and frosted it. I think it’s easier and less crumby.

The cake can be frosted one day ahead and kept refrigerated covered loosely in plastic wrap.  Bring to room temperature before serving.

You’ll need frosting right?

The Best Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Cake frosting tips!? We have those too!

I was recently asked to create a Hawaiian themed cake for a girls first birthday.  Children’s theme cakes usually run along a spectrum: from Sesame Street designs to Yo GabbaGabba characters.  I somehow can never find my creative voice in tracing an Elmo onto a cake.  It’s just not my style.  Imagine my excitement in having free reign with a Hawaiian cake!

What I came up with is a three layered devil’s food cake with coconut cream cheese frosting.  The hot pink dye seemed to call out to me, so the cake became a girly pink with toasted coconut dressing up the side.  On top I fashioned a gum paste (and paper) palm tree with shredded coconut sand, gumpaste coconuts and flip flops.  Yea… flip flops. 

 I’m so pleased with how this cake turned out!  I was able to satisfy the desires of the customer and still create a colorful, hip design.  A little pink Hawaii for one year old Miss Lilly.

Devils Food Cake

3 cups sugar

1 cup butter

4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 2/3 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa

1 tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cup sour cream

1 1/3 cup hot, strong coffee

Preheat oven to 350.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.  Creaming the butter and sugar in an electric mixer.  Beat for about 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  The mixture should be pale in color and fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla extract.  Add eggs one at a time.  Beat each egg into the batter for 1 minute, scraping down the bowlt after each egg.  Alternately add the flour mixture, and sour cream, mixing until just combined.  The batter will be fairly thick at this point, almost like brownie batter.  See the picture above.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the hot coffee.  The batter will thin substantially.  Place in greased and floured cake pans ( I used three 10″ pans) and bake for 18- 25 minutes.

This recipe produces a deliciously moist cake, but because of all of the liquids, the cake is a bit fragile.  Cake pans should be very well greased and floured.  When cakes come out of the oven, let them rest until cooled, then take a knife and loosen the cake from the sides.  Turn them out, and let them cool further on a cooling rack.  Don’t turn them out to cool onto a plate, they’ll stick.  Oh yes, I learned the hard way.  

Layer with any delicious frosting you fancy.  I went for a coconut cream cheese frosting.  Say you aren’t a wiz at frosting the sides of the cake.  Here’s a tip:  always work with a clean cake decorating knife.  Cake knives have a round tip, and no sharp edges.  As your working with the knife, have a deep bowl of hot water on hand.  Dip the knife in and shake it around to clean off the excess frosting.  Working with a clean tool with help ensure clean lines and edges.

When all else fails… hide your mistakes under a layer of delicious toasted coconut!