Devil's food cake turned into brownies

Chocolate lovers should never miss the devil's food cake. Devil’s food cake as compared with typical chocolate cakes is more moist and airy but equally, or if not, more chocolate-y! The difference lies in using cocoa powder instead of chocolate.

Devil’s food cake is meant to go with a rich chocolate frosting. My first devil's food cake was accompanied with a rich chocolate frosting. It was Dear's birthday cake.

Due to time constraint, I omitted the chocolate frosting this time round and made bite-size devil's food cake. It turned out to be like brownies, except much more airy. It is definitely no less chocolate-y than brownies. Promise!

Recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz.

Devil's food cake

Ingredients for cake

• 9 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1½ cups cake flour (not self-rising) 
• ½ tsp salt 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• ¼ tap baking powder 
• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 
• 1½ cups granulated sugar 
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature 
• ½ cup strong coffee (or water) 
• ½ cup whole or low-fat milk 

Ingredients for Ganache frosting

• 10 oz--------------------bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped 
• ½ cup-------------------water (or cream) 
• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) ----unsalted butter 

Method:

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. 

Making the cake:

1. To make the cake layers, sift together the cocoa powder, cake flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. 
2. 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, stops the mixer as necessary to scrape down the sides to be sure everything is getting mixed in.) 
3. Mix together the coffee and milk. Stir half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, add the coffee and milk. Finally stir in the other half of the dry ingredients. 
4. 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. 

Make the frosting

1. 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. 
2. Cut the butter into small pieces and whisks them into the chocolate until completely melted and the Ganache is smooth. Cool until spreadable, this may take about 1 hour at room temperature. Longer time is needed for tropical countries. 

Frosting the cake:

1. 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.