At last, the cake that adorns the cover of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours. This cake is absolutely gorgeous and I've been dying to make it. So you can imagine my excitement when Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater chose the Devil's Food White Out Cake for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection. For those new to my blog, Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) is a baking group. Each week, someone picks a recipe from Dorie's cookbook and everyone bakes it. Then on Tuesdays, everyone posts pictures and descriptions of how the recipe turned out. If you'd like to try this cake yourself, the recipe is posted on Stephanie's blog.
Making this cake went pretty smoothly. I planned to follow the recipe precisely, but didn't have two 8-inch cake pans, so I decided to put all of the batter into the one cake pan that I did have. I left it in the oven a little longer and it worked nicely for me. My top did end up having a few cracks and a slight dome. But fortunately it sliced nicely and I used the top of the cake to crumble and decorate the outside with.
The frosting came together nicely for me. It's the hardest I've worked for frosting, but it was yummy. I loved the marshmallow-y taste it had. I assembled it into three layers and it looked pretty just like this.
Next the sides were frosted and the reserved top layer of the cake was crumbled. Doing this also allowed me to take a few bites of the cake and it was incredibly moist and chocolate-ey.
Sprinkling the crumbs onto the cake proved to be a bit more difficult than I anticipated. The top was easy, but the sides were tricky. When I pressed the crumbs into the sides of the cake, I kept getting frosting on my fingers and getting myself a mess. And let's face it, mine just wasn't looking as pretty as the one on the cover of the book. I had to remind myself that I'm not an expert and no one would care.
For those in the group (who have the cookbook), you can see that my layers of frosting are not as high and luxurious-looking as Dorie's. I mean, how did she do that? My cake just kind of smushed down the frosting, especially when it was sliced.
I brought the cake with me this weekend. I went out of town for a surprise birthday party and knew it would get eaten by everyone. Unfortunately, I made the cake on Friday and it didn't actually get enjoyed until Sunday. So it sat in the fridge for two days. I found it to be a little dry when I finally had a slice. But I'm pretty sure that's to be blamed on the 48 hours that it sat before it was eaten. It was a really great looking cake and I received a ton of compliments. When it was finally sliced into, it was gone within a few hours. So I think it was enjoyed!
Thanks Stephanie for a great pick!
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21 comments:
Wow! That looks wonderful!
I couldn't get my layers to look like Dorie's either. She probably had some photo styling help. :)
I think it looks great! We really enjoyed this cake, but yes it's an eat right away type dessert for sure
That looks beautiful. My favorite cake is devils food with white icing. You did a awesome job.
Your cake looks gorgeous! And your chocolate cake layers are much thicker than mine! I only did two layers because they didn't rise that much! Great job!
Wow, I can't believe that you were able to get four layers from one 8inch cake. You are my hero! I only had one 8" pan as well, and ended up baking two cakes back to back. No wonder this took me all day! I think your cake looks fabulous - it could stand proudly next to the cover cake!
Fantastic job on the cake! It is gorgeous, just like the cover!
Your cake is beautiful! Maybe they added extra frosting for the pictures inthe book...
Your cake looks great and you did a nice job with the crumbs!
What a beautiful cake! I think it takes special equipment to put the crumbs on the side, equipment that home bakers don't have access to. That's my rationalization, anyway!
your cake looks beautiful! I have to laugh about putting the crumbs on the side, because that's exactly what happened to me; I was a chocolaty, marshmallowy mess by the time it was done.
Wow, I am so impressed with the way you torted the cake. It looks so perfect.
Such a pretty cake! The frosting looks really good, I may have to go back and try making it with the cake sometime. I found that my cake was a little dry the next day so maybe it's just a cake that's best eatten the first day.
Well...at least you had some frosting left in there! ;o) It looks great though, really!
Your cake turned out beautifully...not surprising at all that it got gobbled up!
I almost make one big fat one to cut into three layers, but then I chickened out (worried it wouldn't cook through) and baked twice in one pan, back to back. Your cake is beautiful; great job getting those perfectly even layers. And sitting doesn't really help this cake - or specifically this icing. The layers get nice and fudgy.
Nancy
Ok - I think it looks JUST like the cover! Very nicely done - love how your frosting turned out, nice and fluffy and "white"! Nice job!
It looks beautiful, well done :)
I love how perfect your layers look!
Those layers look perfect. And making just one big layer. Great idea.
That looks great! I wondered about the frosting as well. I think Dorie cheated and used extra on her cover cake.
I think yours looks great. I got extra frosting in the layers by making more, which I almost always do -- the frosting is the best part of cake, in my opinion!
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