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!
Hi Zoe, I made these yesterday and they taste great, but all of the cupcakes stuck to the liners. I have never had this happen before and always use parchment liners. Any ideas why this happened? Also, I saw some dialogue in the comment section about the inclusion of both baking powder and baking soda, but I only see baking soda listed about. Should there be baking powder as well? Thank you.
Hi Zoë – I love your website and instagram and have been following you for years because I’m a BreadIn5 enthusiast! I was wondering what conversion you use for cups of flour to grams. The internet gives so many different amounts, and I presume you have one that works best for your recipes. Thanks so much!
I’ve used your devil’s food cake recipe about 3 times already (as cakes) and I receive rave reviews EVERY time! They’re so surprised at how moist it is and some even ask if I used boxed cake mix (how dare they! hehe!) The last time I made it, they swore I bought it from a store and just covered it in icing lol! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and ALL your recipes! (Your website is the first site I go to whenever I need to make something!)
These are the BEST chocolate cupcakes! I’ve made them several times and they always turn out beautifully. I’d love to see you work your magic on a vanilla cupcake recipe!
Hi Kate,
Thank you so much, sorry I missed your note earlier!
Cheers, Zoë
Hi Zoë, is it possible to substitute the buttermilk with milk, or something else? Thank You.
Hi Frank,
You can make buttermilk by adding a 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice to milk.
Thanks, Zoë
Oh mygoodness ! I just found you on on Pinterest, I am so glad happy. .thank God I’m not diabetic, sweetsare what I crave and dessert for me is served before dinner and so often I’m too full to even eat dinnerg. The devil s’s food cake will be made tomorrow . I don’t know if you are still giving away one of your cook books, but if you are, please, consider me! I live in Texas and I love to bake! My husbandgained 29th pounds the first we were married. Hahaha
Whatever happened to the original recipe from years ago? I lost it and then did you updated one and they were a complete disaster. It was my go-to forever and now it’s a mess and I’m sad!
Oh no Lucy,
What happened? I will double check that nothing got messed up in my attempt to “fix” the directions.
Thanks, Zoë
Lucy I have the original recipe printed out lol it’s my absolute favourite chocolate cake I haven’t t tried out this new one yet
when i see you type this is the best taking devil’s food, ever and after i see you using yummy yummy lyle’s, and after i read this not leaning to far into the sweet side of the rainbow, and then i see you using rum, and then not being able to stop my eyes from looming back to your selection of piped frosting designs… hello!?!? i sit here gobsmacked and happy and anxious and hungry. love love love everything about this beautifully photographed and constructed post.
oops… look how your bakes make me misspell, zoe… tasting*
Can you tell us about the papers you use on the cupcakes? They are charming.
Hi Helen,
They are from Paper Chef. http://www.paperchef.com
Cheers, Zoë
These look great! I love all of your piping variations 🙂
Thank you Andrea!
Is this the same stuff? http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/lyles-golden-syrup
The container looks different. Can’t wait to try this cake! Thx
Hi Debbi,
Yes, that is it and you are going to love it!
Cheers, Zoë
Hi Zoe
I was looking for Chocolate Blackout Cake recipe! when I found your beautiful blog! I love your decorating skills!
Thank you for the lovely note!
Hope you enjoy the cake! Zoë
Hi Zoe. Your devils food cupcakes look amazing. I’m making a cake for a friend’s 70th birthday which I’ll be decorating with chocolate cigarillos – they are pretty expensive and so I want to get it right and have been trying various recipes beforehand. I live in the UK and we would not usually use granulated sugar in a cake recipe – do you think the type we buy here is different or is there science behind your choice of sugar in this recipe. I have already had a couple of disastrous attempts with double chocolate and fudge cake recipes so I thought I would ask before I trying this one. Thanks
Oooh i made something very similar a few months ago, and it was delicious! Loved seeing how you had a different take on it. I’m definitely making this! thanks for sharing!
Zoë, I baked these devil’s food cupcakes last night, a birthday treat for a friend. They are so delicious! Yes, definitely double up the frosting. It’s fun to work with and I might have gotten a little carried away. This recipe is in my Favorites file. Thanks!
I have tried making this 2/3 of this recipe (with reduced sugar and oil to 3/4s of prescribed amount to balance out the sweetness and hydration). It can fill two (2) 8×2 baking tins. Crumbly, moist and superb flavor. Almost like the DFC cake box mix.
I kid you not my taste buds went crazy looking at these photos. My mouth physically watered. This recipe looks amazing! I can’t wait to give it a try!!
Hello Zoe!
So I made these cupcakes yesterday. The texture was runny but baked perfectly! I filled the muffin cups 3/4 full. It took 23 min to bake regular cupcakes and 17 min for minis.
The cupcakes are delicious, however we don’t taste neither coffee, nor brandy. I really wanted to taste both these ingredients in my cupcakes so I ended up piping into them some of the Kahlua. Zoe, do you have any tip how to make these cupcakes with the stronger coffee and brandy taste?
Frosting: I actually liked the sower taste of the cream cheese. But my husband didn’t. Next time I’ll try to make the same cupcakes but with the chocolate frosting.
I want to thank you for this recipe!
P.S. Should I use the vinegar with the baking soda or the buttermilk takes care of it?
Hi Sweetmama,
The coffee and brandy are there to give the cake a bit of a bitter edge, so the cake isn’t too sweet. You’d have to add a lot more to the recipe to actually get the flavor and it would throw off the recipe. One way to get the flavor is to brush a bit of coffee/brandy over the top of the cupcake after it is baked. This is called a “soak” and it is a traditional method of adding more flavor to a simple cake. Don’t add too much or the cupcakes will get soggy.
Buttermilk provides all the acid you need in the recipe.
Enjoy, Zoë
Hello Zoe, thanks for response!
And thank you for the five star recipe.
Could you tell me what are your most favorite cupcakes, frosting and cakes? You’ve baked so many but which ones do you like the best?
Thank you!
Dear Zoe!
WOW…this recipe sounds to be the best of the best!
I just finished reading all the reviews in order to avoid asking the same question. So hopefully you’ll answer my questions.
1. Can I use Brandy instead of Rum to make a cupcake less sweet?
2. How do I store frosted cupcakes in a hot and humid weather?
3. Do you have a similar great recipe for the kids cupcakes?
Thank you so much for the recipe, I’m ordering the ingredients tonight!
Rarely am I inspired to the level to write a review. This is both a review and a thank you. These are truly special. I followed the recipes exactly. (Always like to do this first time out.) Where given choices, used buttermilk, rum and plain ol’ Hershey’s choc powder. Had to order the Lyle’s from Amazon, but SOooo glad I waited rather than substitute. Not only is the flavor special, it also did nice things for texture and consistency of the icing. The cake and icing recipes are each delicious, but the pairing of the two takes the finished product up a level. I enjoyed rave reviews! The only thing I may do differently next time is try using the brandy rather than the rum. Does anyone have feedback on that?
GREAT cake, Zoe … and now I too have my “go-to” dark chocolate cake. I used Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder (always excellent, always very chocolate-y) and the batter volume was perfect for two 9×9 squares for a square layer cake (my favorite shape for both appearance and cutting). I made it the night before so the cake would “set” and iced it in the morning. The birthday boy might just have eaten five slices — but then who’s counting? — and kids/grown-ups both were crazy for it. I love the dense, moist crumb and that it’s not so sweet. Thank you, thank you!
What amount of coffee powder to use to make hot coffee?
And when rum is not used then also how much more hot coffee is used to replace it?
Lyle’s syrup is something we would buy in the south called “King’s syrup”. Our ritual was to take the syrup, mix it with a little butter, and dip our homemade biscuits in it! Such a treat. We did this 100’s of times….. Thanks for reminding me of it.
will this recipe fit for a 9inch bundt pan? if so, how can i adjust the baking time?
if the recipe wont fit a 9inch bundt pan, how can i adjust the recipe? thanks so much!
Zoe,
I cannot wait to try this recipe. Do you have a recommendation for a good basic yellow cake? I want to try making a 12 layer cake.
Thanks for such a wonderful blog,
Angela
PS I make a lot of Bin5 and love that blog too. Eagerly awaiting that new book.