This Devil’s Food Cake from Zoë Bakes Cakes is the best chocolate cake recipe I have ever tried and believe me, over the past 20+ years, I’ve tried them all. It is perfect for devil’s food cupcakes with cream cheese icing.
Want a Devil’s Food Cake fit for a celebration? Try my layer cake with Champange Buttercream!
My Secret Devil’s Food Cake Ingredients
- Lyle’s Golden Syrup
- Rum
- Coffee
The dark chocolate cake has a texture that is smooth and rich. The flavor is not overly sweet, because of the intensity of the coffee (you don’t actually taste the coffee, it just cuts the sweet). The rum makes it a great match for cream cheese frosting sweetened with Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
If you haven’t tried Lyle’s you are in for a huge treat and a new addiction. I first had it when a friend from South Africa gave it to me on a peanut butter sandwich. It is a decidedly British snack and like nothing you’ve ever had before. It’s a syrup made of sugar cane that looks and feels like honey, but the taste is not nearly as cloying. It can be found in some grocery stores and even on Amazon, gotta’ love the internet!
How to Pipe Icing
For those of you who want to learn to decorate your devil’s food cupcakes with a little more flair, here is a post on piping icing roses.
pottery by Kevin Caufield
Ingredients
Devil’s Food Cupcakes
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 2 1/3 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (50g) Cocoa Powder (I like the flavor and color of Dutch-processed cocoa but Natural cocoa produces a more even crumb)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/8 cups (300ml) hot coffee
- 1/4 cup rum
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 1/2 pounds (680g) package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I am really brand loyal, having tried lots!), softened
- 1 1/2 cups (330g) unsalted butter softened
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract optional
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 5 cups (600g) confectioner's sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup use honey if you are in a pinch
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare 1 dozen large muffin tins with Paper Baking Cups (or two 9-inch rounds).
- Combine all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and whisk until combined, set aside.
- Whisk together, eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk, while slowly adding the coffee and rum to the batter and whisk until totally blended and smooth, about 2 minutes. The batter will be quite runny.
- Fill a measuring cup or pitcher with the batter and then fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full.
- Bake the devil's food cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes (about 25-30 for 9-inch rounds) or until a tester comes out clean.
- Allow to cool on a cake rack and then frost with cream cheese icing (recipe follows).
- Cream Cheese Icing: Combine all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and cream together until smooth. I used a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip to decorate these devil’s food cupcakes. You may want to double the icing recipe just in case you find yourself dipping into the bowl with a spoon!
yummy, I love cupcakes and these look amazing. Nice presntation.
Hi Amelia,
What a great idea to mix the ganache with the cream cheese! I’ll have to try it!
Thanks, Zoë
Zoe, WOW this recipe rocks! When I saw that it made 30 cupcakes, I cut the recipe by two-thirds since I wanted to make a quick batch for a dinner I was going to and it worked out great! I love chocolate, so I mixed up some ganache and added it to your cream cheese icing.
I will definitely be making these again!
Hi Mark,
Sorry it took so long to get back to this, life and sick kids got in the way.
The results of my buttermilk, soda and natural cocoa were excellent.
This is what I used:
3 cups sugar
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/8 cup natural cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cups oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 cups hot coffee
1/4 cup rum
Mix and bake as above.
It also worked beautifully to cut the recipe in half!
Thanks!
Zoë
Hi Mark,
Yes, I promised a friend of mine some of these cupcakes in return for borrowing her feather boa for a costume party. A fair trade I think!
I’ll let you know when I test it.
Thanks, Zoë
Hey Randi,
Thank you for inviting me to the forum, it is really a great discussion. It is so interesting to converse with people that are experienced bakers. They have more set ways and I think our method is challenging what they are used to. I so appreciate their willingness to try this!
I’ve never tried the Black Magic cake from Hershey’s but you know I’ll be checking it out!
Thanks, Zoë
Zoe,
Thanks for being willing to test this out in the kitchen. I look forward to hearing about your results!
For interested readers, here is the link to eGullet where Zoe’s book is being discussed,and well-received!:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?s=8ad6d35d8a38a9b1a5e3991c5c5f1b1e&showtopic=111794
The recipe looks very similar to my favorite choc. cake recipe( Black Magic) from Hershey’s. It makes such a moist cake. I usually throw in some choc. chips to gild the lily.
Btw, thanks for responding to my note about the thread on Egullet. I’ll be looking for you on the thread.
Hi Corrin,
I have the tin next to my computer right now with a little spoon! It is that good. You may want to buy an extra just for your own private use.
Zoë
those look divine. i’ve never heard of or seen lyle’s, so i’ll be doing my research.
Hi Zoe,
Loved these cupcakes! I made these cupcakes in a large muffin cups but would like to now make a smaller version in a standard muffin cup. Do you know how many standard cupcakes this recipe makes? Thanks!
Hi Susan, these make about 18 in standard muffin cups. Happy baking!
Hi Mark,
I’m going to try a batch this week using just the buttermilk and soda, no baking powder. I have always done this using a Dutched cocoa, but am now curious to see what will happen if I use a natural cocoa.
Thank you for this challenge! It is nice to meet someone that gets as excited about this stuff as I do!
Zoë
Zoe,
Thanks for answering my question. I’m just a compulsive (!), home cook, who is especially interested in the science of baking. I am also sensitive to excess levening in baked goods, which often tastes soapy to me. Recipes like yours interest me, because I’m always trying to figure out how you know when the acid and base is balanced. If I want to make the recipe using dutched i.e. alkalized cocoa and buttermilk, which I think will produce the best crumb, would I leave out all of the baking powder, or just reduce it? Likewise, wouldn’t I have to change something if the recipe were instead made with regular cocoa, which is natually acidic?
Hey Mark,
Great question!!! Are you a baker, a scientist or have you read CookWise by Shirley Corriher? If you haven’t you should, you’ll love it!!!
It is true that the baking soda and the buttermilk would be sufficient to make this cake rise. In fact, I have a recipe that calls for that combination, sans baking powder and it is wonderful!
Because of the baking powder in this recipe you can use plain milk and still have a great rise to your cake. In which case the baking soda is there to react to the cocoa powder, which makes it nice and dark chocolaty looking, no matter what kind of cocoa you use.
I’ve tried it with both buttermilk and regular milk and it works equally well.
Thanks for the wonderful question. Please keep in touch!
Zoë
Hi Zoe,
You have two different quantities of baking soda for this recipe on your page. The first listing of the recipe shows 1.5 tsp, the second shows 1tbsp in the section where the recipe has a border and you can print it. I’m going to try making these again today w the 1.5 tsp and hopefully don’t have the molten mess I had last time. Otherwise, they were delicious, save for the slight taste of baking soda.
Hi Elizabeth, Thank you for calling this out! So sorry for the discrepancy and the inconvenience. I have updated the recipe card to reflect this.
Zoe,
I noted that this recipe says to use either milk or buttermilk. Isn’t there going to be a big difference in the final result depending on what you use? I assume the acidity of the buttermilk will interact with the baking soda in a very different way than would plain milk. Isn’t buttermilk going to be better here?
These cupcakes are absolutely gorgeous! And I’ve seen Lyle’s Golden Syrup at the grocery store, but have never used it. This sounds like a great way to do so!
Hi Heather,
Thanks! These are as delicious as they look. Try them out, it really is the best chocolate cake I’ve had. If you find a better one, let me know!!!
Zoë
You post the most incredibly mouth-watering food photos ever!
Hi Jayne,
Enjoy the cupcakes! The recipe makes a few dozen. If you want to freeze some of them just make sure you wrap them several times so they don’t take on the personality of your freezer!
Thanks! Zoë
Thanks for posting the cupcake recipe, Zoe! I loved them at the party. Of course, I alternated between the cupcakes and all the great bread. You’re amazing.
Jayne
Thank you Jaden!
Your site has been an inspiration to me! I am putting a link so everyone can see your beautiful work!
Zoë
Hey, great blog Zoe! Congrats on the success of the book.
Hi Kris,
You really are a major talent. I love to garden but I fear I didn’t inherit my father’s green thumb, but I still try.
Thank you for your kind words about the site and the book.
I have heard many people talk about baking the bread on the parchment sitting on the stone. I am going to try it with my next loaf. I’ll let you know if I detect any difference at all.
Thanks! Zoë
Hi Zoe – thank you for the nice comment you left on my blog. I LOVE your site – I’ll definitely be back to do more browsing!!
I tried another loaf of bread today – using parchment paper (because I was having so much trouble with the cornmeal scorching) – the loaf came out lovely. Do you see any problem with doing it that way?? I’m going to keep experimenting.
Thanks to you and Jeff for putting out the book – this is really good bread and sooooo easy. We are loving it!
Also, thanks for the comments about my gardens – that’s my passion! We do have a short growing season here in MN, but some lovely things happen during that time each year.
Hi KN,
It is a great way to sweeten not only cream cheese frosting but I also use it in place of Honey and/or corn syrup (like when I make caramel sauce I add a tablespoon to prevent the sugar from crystallizing.)
Not only is it tasty but a kitchen helper.
Thanks, Zoë
Zoë–these look amazing! I adore Lyle’s and had no idea it could be thrown into a cream cheese frosting. I love it! I can’t wait to try it. Thanks for sharing!