BAKING

Devil’s Food Cake with Fluffy Chocolate Icing

Marc Riboud (b. 1923)
Notre-Dame, 1953
Black and White Photo
Paris, France

As always, I’ve been playing around with different ingredients do garner the fluffiest possible texture in my cake recipes and my latest experiments have garnered some incredible results. For this chocolate cake, I took some gluten free oats, ground them in a food processor until a very fine flour and incorporated them into a chocolate cake recipe I’ve been fiddling around with using non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening and the result was a super fluffy cake with a moist crumb that reminded me exactly of devil’s food cake. Covered with a fluffy dark chocolate icing, you’ll find yourself making this cake over and over again.

I served it for dessert a couple of nights ago and everyone LOVED it, including my “gluten eating” guests. So roll up your sleeves and hop in the kitchen for a magical Halloween surprise.

This cake can also be made into cupcakes. Simply reduce your cooking time to 15-20 minutes and the tops of the cupcakes spring back when gently pressed with your finger.

DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons dry gluten free oats, finely ground
½ cup cornstarch
¼ cup glutinous rice flour
1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup or 8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, preferably organic (non-hydrogenated)
1/3 cup powdered cocoa, sifted
1 ¼ teaspoons guar gum
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup or 2 oz. finely chopped bittersweet chocolate

Preheat oven to a low 350°F and butter two 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment and then butter the paper. Set aside.

In a food processor, grind the gluten free oats to a fine powder and set aside.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine all the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until amalgamated. Add the vegetable shortening and mix on medium speed until you can no longer see any lumps. Add the eggs and mix on high speed until the batter is thick. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add the milk and vanilla extract. Whip on high speed for about 1 minute and the batter is slightly runny. Fold in the bittersweet chocolate.

Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 40 minutes, rotating the pans front to back after 20 minutes.

The cakes are done when they begin to pull away form the sides of the pan and a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Honore Daumier (1808-1879)
Council of War, 1872
Lithograph 11 3/8 x 9 3/16 inches
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Prolific French Draftsman

CLASSIC CHOCOLATE ICING

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (still has surface resistance when gently pressed)
1 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup light corn syrup
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
8 oz. dark chocolate (70%) chips, melted, like Guittard

To begin, in a double boiler, melt your chocolate chips over a medium-low flame to prevent from scorching the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Once the chocolate has melted, stir to smooth and remove from the heat and allow to cool until warm to the touch.

In a food processor, pulse the butter till smooth, about 30 seconds. Sift the cocoa powder and the confectioner’s sugar over the butter and pulse five times. Pour in the light corn syrup and the vanilla and pulse again until smooth. Over-mixing can result in too much friction, causing the butter to melt.

When the melted chocolate has cooled, add to the icing and pulse several more times until the icing is uniform in color (i.e. no swirling).

Your icing is now ready for use.

Makes about 4 cups icing and will generously ice a two-layer 8” cake.

Photography by Knoxy of Knox Photographics

October 20th, 2009 — 2:42 pm

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