Devils Food Layer Cake

Devils Food Layer Cake

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
4  tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten

White Frosting:

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
1 cup granulated sugar

Ganache:

3 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
24 oz. choclate chips (about 2 bags!)

Extras:

1 jar maraschino cherries

Round cookie cutter--any size you want to make your cakes!! 

Baking spray

1 Gallon ziplok bag

Directions:

Chocolate cake:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Use an 18-by-13-inch sheet.  Cut parchment paper to fit the pan and spray each side with baking spray.

In a mixing bowl, combine the flour,  sugar and salt.  

In a pan, melt the butter.

Add the cocoa to the butter and stir together.  

Add 1 cup boiling water to the pan and then allow the mixture to boil for 30 seconds.  

Pour over the flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

Pour the buttermilk into a bowl and add the baking soda, vanilla and beaten eggs.

Stir the buttermilk mixture into the butter/flour mixture.

Pour into the pan and bake for 20 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely. (VERY important!)

Cut the cooled cake into circles with a round cookie cutter, and puts on another sheet pan.  When they are all cut into circles, put them in the fridge to make sure they are as cold as possible.

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White frosting:

In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. You want it to be extremely thick.

Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

If in a hurry, place the saucepan in the fridge until it is VERY cool!

*CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH THAT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE COLD!*

Stir in the vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and granulated sugar together until  fluffy. 

Then add milk/flour mixture and beat it for a good 15 minutes! I am not joking!  If you think its been beat enough...it probably hasn't!

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For the ganache: 

Heat the cream until very hot.  Add the vanilla, and then pour over the chocolate chips. Stir until it becomes a smooth chocolatey "Willy Wonka like" soup!

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To assemble: 

Put the white frosting mixture into a one gallon ziplock bag and cut the tip off, and squeeze onto one chocolate cake circle.  You can just spread it with a knife, but I like doing this.  It looks nicer!

Press another circle on top.

Pour ganache over the cake!  I poured lots of it on my cakes!!

Place  cherries on top and you are good to go!! 

Chill the cakes until hungry!

I made the mistake of doing a lot of these steps sooner than I should have, and everything was still pretty warm.  They still tasted really good, but didn't look as pretty as I had hoped because they were falling apart!  When I do this again I will be way more patient, and wait until everything is very cold and my life will be so much easier!

I also ate the first one right after I finished assembling them.  While VERY delicious, I actually enjoyed these a lot more cold out of the fridge!

Moral to the story:  PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!  One that is desperately needed when baking these beauties!

You could also just make one BIG DELICIOUS cake instead of the mini versions if you have a large group by just using 3-12 inch round pans instead of the sheet cake.

Let me know what you think when you try these!!