I always thought devil’s food was deeper chocolate, but my friend always thought the opposite. Which is true?
This staff report leads us to this cite on devil’s food cake which says
So Devil’s food cake is chocolaty and red.
I would say that “chocolate cake” is a general category of cakes like devil’s food, german chocolate, chocolate lover’s cake, coca-cola cake, and any of a dozen or more cakes that are all basically a kind of choclate cake.
That’s odd, Patty O’Furniture. I’ve never seen devil’s food cake that was red. I’m guessing there are some regional differences. The link says that people may leave out the dye these days. I don’t really know enough about baking to say what it was exactly that I’ve eaten, but I know I’ve never had a red cake. I know that some cupcakes my mother used to make used a devil’s food base rather than just a simple chocolate cake base. I’ll ask her next time we speak.
The term Devil’s Food Cake is a play on Angel Food Cake - a type of cake that was invented first, I believe. Angel food cake is made with beaten egg whites and no oil or fat, and tends to be very light and fluffy. Angel food cake is also flavored with “light” flavors such as vanilla or almond extract.
Devil’s food cake is a sort of opposite of angel food cake. That is, it is rich and dense with a strong flavor (i.e. lots of chocolate). It is made with whole eggs, butter and sour cream or buttermilk.
As for whether devil’s food is more chocolatey than plain chocolate cake - I don’t think there’s a straight answer to this question, since there’s no standard recipe for either. You can put as much chocolate or cocoa as you like in either one. The thing that distinguishes devil’s food cake from most other types of cake is moistness and richness (although most devil’s food cakes are pretty chocolatey).
I’ve also never seen red devil’s food cake. What’s more, I can’t figure out why I keep hearing that red velvet cake is chocolate. A lot of recipes I’ve seen don’t call for any chocolate or cocoa at all and those that do only call for a little bit of it (a teaspoon or two)—just enough to add maybe a hint of chocolate flavor.
In my experience there is quite a difference between Red Velvet Cake and Devil’s Food Cake.
Devil’s Food has always been very chocolatey and rich, moving closer to a darker chocolate flavor than regular chocolate cake even though both are usually served with a thick, creamy chocolate frosting.
Red Velvet cake is also a rich cake but not nearly as chocolate in flavor. In fact, I wouldn’t go with “chocolate” being the actual flavor of the cake. It’s more of a unique rich vanilla-cocoa mix. This type of cake is usually frosted with a cream cheese, sour cream or other creamy white frosting.
Actually, you can see the difference in the chocolatey-ness in the recipes: red velvet cake usually calls for a couple of teaspoons or sometimes tablespoons of cocoa whereas devil’s food cake recipes usually call for 1/2 to 1 full cup of cocoa.
My Grammy says Devil’s Food cake always had red food coloring in it. It was popular during the war because chocolate was scarce.
Well, thanks!
I have made red velvet cake before, and it had a whole bottle of red food coloring, as I recall. But I don’t remember how much chocolate was in it. It was popular in Texas in the late 70’s early 80’s. (At least it was where I was living.)
I’ll just have to get out my Joy of Cooking which I recently took from a dead woman and check this devil’s food cake out!
(She was dead for several months and her husband gave her cookbooks away after their children took the ones they wanted.)
I’ve never made a Red Velvet cake from scratch, but the kind that comes out the box tastes like a chocolate-cherry cake to me.