Sunday, February 15, 2015

Devil’s food loaf

Devil's food loaf / Bolo de chocolate (Devil's food loaf)

I’ve told you already that I’m not easily seduced by chocolate cakes, but sometimes I feel like making nothing but something with chocolate and when that happened last I remembered Annie Bell’s amazing chocolate Victoria sponge cake I made years ago and I knew that if I made one of her recipes I would be glad with the result.

I love how certain authors automatically come to my mind when I want something very specific.

The result was indeed really good: this is a much simpler cake, made in a loaf pan and with a rich and delicious glaze that transforms the cake into a wonderful dessert. One could, of course, omit the glaze for a tea time treat and serve the cake with some icing sugar on top only – that would still get you a great cake, I guarantee. But if you want something slightly more decadent, to finish up a dinner or to go with a movie session, go ahead and prepared the glaze, too – I am sure you won’t regret it.

Annie Bell writes for The Daily Mail, and I highly recommend you check her recipes out.

Devil’s food loaf
slightly adapted from Annie Bell

Cake:
½ cup (45g) unsweetened cocoa
¾ teaspoon baking soda
3 medium eggs*
1 1/3 cups (233g) brown sugar, packed
½ cup (120ml) canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (140g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Frosting:
60g dark chocolate, chopped – I used one with 70% cocoa solids
1 tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, sifted
2 tablespoons whole milk
½ tablespoon honey

Lightly butter a 20x10cm (8x4in) loaf pan, line it with paper and butter the paper as well. Whisk the cocoa with 100ml boiling water in a small bowl using a small whisk, then whisk in the baking soda and leave to cool for about 20 minutes – in the meantime, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil in a large bowl using an electric whisk until smooth and combined. Whisk in the vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and stir. Stir the cocoa mixture. Pour into the pan and give it a couple of taps on the work surface to bring up any bubbles. Bake for about 1 hour or until the cake is risen and a skewer inserted at the centre comes out clean. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, leave for 10 minutes and then carefully unmold onto a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, peel off the paper and place onto a serving plate.

For the frosting, gently melt the chocolate with the butter in a medium bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. At the same time combine the cocoa, milk and honey in a small saucepan and heat almost to boiling point, giving it a whisk. Pass this through a sieve into the bowl with the melted chocolate and whisk to a thick, glossy icing. The icing can set quickly so should be used straight away (but if necessary you can rewhisk it in the bowl over the heat with a teaspoon or two of water).

Smooth the glaze over the top of the cake, taking it to the edge and letting it drip down. Set aside for a couple of hours for the frosting to set.

The cake will keep well in a covered container for several days.

* since I only had large eggs at hand, I selected the smallest I could find to use in this recipe

Serves 6-8

10 comments:

June Burns said...

Wow, what a rich and delicious cake that looks like! I'd love a slice of that for tea :)

Laura (Tutti Dolci) said...

What a glorious loaf, I love the chocolate frosting!

Katie said...

Looks wonderfully dark and chocolaty. That glaze is so glossy

Pris said...

I made this earlier in the week and it was diviiiiiine (even though it's "Devil's food", hah!). The fact that I was too lazy to make the frosting in no way reduced the awesomeness of the deep and delicious chocolate flavor of the cake. This recipe's getting saved to my favourites!

Patricia Scarpin said...

Thank you, girls!

Pris, I'm so glad to hear you made the recipe and liked it! Thank you for letting me know how the cake turned out!

Jelli said...

I've got this in the oven now and can't wait to try it! I have a favorite chocolate bundt recipe that I often make as loaves, but this will be a great replacement for those days when I don't have as much butter on hand. I'm sure it'll be terrific if it tastes as good as the batter did. Thank you for sharing!

Anonymous said...

*sigh* I have this in the oven right now and it's been a hour it's no where near done but the top is burning :( the only change I made was using Demerara sugar because I have no brown sugar...so bummed out as I love Devils food and was dying for some chocolate cake lol

Unknown said...

I baked this delicious cake and kicked it up with 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper... My goodness it was delish, I also changed the icing a bit and used milk chocolate. Very yummy

Patricia Scarpin said...

Hi Patricia - I absolutely love the idea of adding cayenne pepper, how nice!
I am glad you liked the idea and made it your own. Thank you for letting me know!

Anonymous said...

It only took 46 minutes to bake. Great recipe. Thank you

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