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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Devil's Food Cake vs Chocolate Cake

I've posted this before, but it's an important re-post. People always ask what's the difference between Devil's Food Cake and Chocolate Cake. It's a good question, and there are many different interpretations. Some recipes use cocoa, some melted chocolate, some add coffee or hot liquid, and some increase the baking soda.

According to Wikipedia:

Because of differing recipes and changing ingredient availability over the course of the twentieth century, it is difficult to precisely qualify what distinguishes Devil's food from the more standard chocolate cake. The traditional Devil's food cake is made with shredded beets much the way a carrot cake is made with carrots. The beets add moisture and sweetness to the cake, helping it to be very rich. The red of the beets slightly colors the cake red and due to the richness of the cake it became known as the Devil's food. 

O.k. That's a beet cake or a 'natural' red velvet cake, and I make a good one, but it's not a Devil's Food Cake in my opinion.


Devil's food cake is generally more moist and airy than other chocolate cakes, and often uses cocoa as opposed to chocolate for the flavor as well as coffee. The lack of melted chocolate and the addition of coffee is typically what distinguishes a Devil's food cake from a chocolate cake, though some recipes call for all, resulting in an even richer chocolate flavor. The use of hot, or boiling water as the cake's main liquid, rather than milk, is also a common difference. 

Devil's food cake is sometimes distinguished from other chocolate cakes by the use of additional baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) which raises the pH level and makes the cake a deeper and darker mahogany color. Devil's food cake incorporates butter (or a substitute), egg whites, flour (while some chocolate cakes are flourless) and less egg than other chocolate cakes. Devil's food cake was introduced in the United States in the early 20th century with the recipe in print as early as 1905. 

A similar cake, the red velvet cake, is closely linked to a Devil's food cake, and in some turn of the century cookbooks the two names may have been interchangeable. Most red velvet cakes today use red food coloring, but even without it, the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa. When used in cakes, acid causes reddening of cocoa powder when baked, and before more alkaline "Dutch Processed" cocoa was widely available, the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "Red Velvet" as well as "Devil's Food" and a long list of similar names for chocolate cakes.

And, lastly:  A traditional difference between just a chocolate cake and a devil's food cake is more chocolate. "When the larger amount of chocolate is used, it is a black, rich Devil's Food," said the first Joy of Cooking (1931 p. 236, cited in the Food Timeline, which has additional material on the history too).

I'm partial to Devil's Food Cake.

Here are several mid-century recipes. Sorry about the light print on the first cookbook.

I've posted many Devil's Food Cake recipes in the past, but today I have four mid-century recipes.

The first recipe is for Cocoa Devil's Food Cake from How To Get the Most Out of Your Sunbeam Mixmaster (1950). I posted a "Mix-Easy" Devil's Food Cake for Mother's Day, and you might want to look at that one, too. It's pretty much the same as the following recipe. The following page in the Sunbeam Mixmaster Cookbook is great for today's post since there's a Chocolate Cake recipe next to the Devil's Food Cake recipe.


This same cookbook has a recipe for Black Devil's Food Cake, so now we have Cocoa Devil's Food Cake, Black Devil's Food Cake, and a Red Devil's Food Cake. As you see, the following Black Devil's Food cake is made with cocoa and with the addition of strong hot coffee or boiling water.


The Red Devil's Food Cake is a variation on the Chocolate Fudge Cake on the same page, and to save space, they didn't reprint the entire recipe! It's a very small pamphlet. The baking soda is increased, but otherwise it's the same cake. This recipe is from the Recipes for your Hamilton Beach Mixer-17 Delicious New Cakes (1947). Don't you just love that someone wrote good next to the recipe? It's the same recipe I posted (but from a different pamphlet) on Devil's Food Cake for Mother's Day. 


And one more Red Devil's Food Cake from the same mid-century period. This one is from Kate Smith Chooses her 55 Favorite Ann Pillsbury CAKE RECIPES.


Enough Devil's Food Cake recipes? Never! Have a look at Martha Washington's Devil's Food Cake from Capitol Hill Cooks: Recipes from the White House by Linda Bauer. It's a great Buttermilk Devil's Food Cake!  And, mystery author Eva Gates aka Vicki Delany has a guest post here on DyingforChocolate for Fun with Devil's Food Cake. Check out her recipe.

So what's the difference between Devil's Food Cake and Chocolate Cake? You decide.

6 comments:

Marjie said...

My guys don't care what you call it, as long as it's chocolate cake. As for me, I'll skip grating and adding the beets! You have some great recipes here. (I stopped by from Louise's blog)

Janet Rudolph said...

Thanks for stopping by...

~~louise~~ said...

What a GREAT post, Janet!!! I have had many "heated" discussions about the differences between Devil's Food Cake and Chocolate Cake. You might remember a post I did a while back for Devil's Food Cake Day.

However you slice it, if a cake has chocolate in it, I'm in it too!!!

Thank you so much for linking this post up to Cookbook Wednesday Janet. I don't know if you know it or not but you are more than welcome to grab the logo or to link to the Cookbook Wednesday post.

I'm thrilled to hear you will be joining us for the Picnic Game too. with the response from today's post, it looks like it may be a go! We'll know for sure on Saturday if any one else wants to "play."

Mae Travels said...

Your collection of vintage cooking pamphlets and books is really fun. Thanks for sharing them. One chocolate cake looks better than the next devil's food cake... I bet they are all delicious. I've never (knowingly) eaten a chocolate cake with beets in it, but I can see how the sweetness of the beets would compliment the other flavors.

best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

Cheri Savory Spoon said...

We our big chocolate cake fans, no matter what kind. Love all these vintage cookbooks that you and Louise keep coming up with. Take care!

Rosita Vargas said...

Esta tarta se ve realmente perfecta una delicia tentadora,abrazos desde Chile.