Making devil’s food cake cake is only good when made from scratch, believe me. It's rich, moist and extremely chocolatey – and pretty easy too.
I weigh my ingredients out when I
bake, and I use grams, not ounces. This makes your measurements more
accurate than when using cups and tablespoons. Another tip is to sift
everything you can. I can’t tell you how many times I have sifted flour right
out of the bag and found little pebbles of something, not sure what. You don’t
want that stuff in your cake, so it’s best to just sift it right away.
First, you
measure your dry ingredients, except the sugar, and fat, be it shortening or
butter, and I of course like butter. My recipe actually calls for high-ratio
shortening (a.k.a emulsified shortening) which is NOT the same as the Crisco
you can buy at Wal-Mart. It has special emulsifiers in it which help it retain
more moisture, so it’s chemically different than regular shortening.
Anyway, mix
the fat and the dry ingredients, except the sugar, until it’s mixed thoroughly. Don’t forget to stop and scrape the bottom of
the bowl, so you can get everything evenly mixed. Then add the sugar, half the
milk, and vanilla, mix thoroughly, and again stop and scrape. While this is
mixing, you can weigh out your eggs and milk. If you are going to weigh your
ingredients out, I recommend weighing out the eggs first, because they are the
messiest. Usually a regular grade AA egg will weigh about 2 ounces, but this is
not always true, because it is nature.
So now, add
the egg and milk, but only do it a third at a time – this ensures everything
will get incorporated correctly and you won’t have those pesky lumps we all
hate. Keep mixing until the batter turns a light brown color, and will appear
whipped and not lumpy.
While you
are waiting for the batter to finish whipping, (it’s gonna take a couple
minutes) you should prepare your pans. If you are planning to make sheet cakes
or round ones, it’s best if you use fat and flour on the pans to ensure the
cakes will come out of the pan without sticking. You can always make cupcakes
though, and that’s self-explanatory.
I bake my
cakes at 360˚F, but depending on the recipe you have, it varies. It also
matters on your oven. Bake until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the
pan, and when a toothpick is inserted, it will come out clean. The time also
varies depending on oven, pan, size and many other factors.
I have made my cakes many times and
have learned my equipment with time. If you don’t get a perfect product, keep
trying. Happy baking!
