It’s James’s birthday!! Can you believe, that in all the (three) years that we’ve known each other, we’ve never been able to celebrate the actual day of his birthday together? Work and life just get in the way. And so, I’ve never made him a birthday cake! And because we weren’t together this year either, I thought about just chucking in the towel and giving up on the cake for one more year. James was in Germany for a conference, and then in London to see friends and family. I, with a free Sunday on my hands, dithered between getting a manicure and a massage… or slaving away roasting sugar and making a cake.

Obviously I made a cake, and obviously, motivations weren’t completely selfless. I felt a little bad because I saw that his family had already made him a chocolate cake, but I also had my heart set on chocolate. You know those huge, fluffy, colorful sheet cakes from Costco that you ate all the time as a child, because they would be present at every birthday party, sporting event, and piano recital? Yeah, that cake – I loved that cake, and a few days ago, there was some leftover Costco chocolate cake in the office kitchen from a retirement party. I gobbled down a slice (being unable to resist free dessert), and have been craving more ever since.

I used the Devil’s Food Cake recipe from Bravetart, and the result was a cake that was chocolatey, moist, fluffy, and very very easy. It is truly a one-bowl cake that uses ingredients straight from the fridge, and comes together very quickly. The cake itself was the easiest part of this dessert to make! For the frosting, I also used Stella Parks’s new recipe for Chocolate Swiss Buttercream, which led me down the previously mentioned rabbit hole of roasting sugar (read aaaaall about my thoughts on that here). Whether because of the roasted sugar or not, the frosting was definitely the highlight – smooth, creamy, richly chocolatey, and not too sweet. Swiss buttercream is more labor-intensive than American buttercream, but I think it really tastes more complex, with a smoother, silkier, lighter texture. For all its steps, it’s also a resilient beast, and will bounce back from most supposed disasters. Once you get the hang of what you’re doing, it’s fairly straightforward.

Happy Birthday, Jimmy Ted!!!

Final note: I scaled both the cake and the frosting down 2/3 to make a 2-layer cake, because I still had a freezer full of Reese’s peanut butter cups, so that’s why some quantities are a little wonky. For quantities for the 3-layer cake, follow the links back to the original recipes.

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Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Swiss Buttercream Frosting

Source: Cake from Bravtart, by Stella Parks. Adapted to make a 2-layer 8-inch cake. For a 3-inch cake, see ingredient quantities here.

Frosting from Serious Eats by Stella Parks. Again, adapted to frost 2-layer cake, hence why quantities are a bit wonky.

For more information on roasted sugar, see here.

Ingredients

Devil's Food Cake:

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (8 ounces) black coffee
• 2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 4 ounces (3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) finely chopped dark chocolate, about 72%
• 1 1/3 cup gently packed (10 2/3 ounces) light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 large eggs, straight from the fridge
• 2 large egg yolks (1 ounce)
• 1 1/3 cup (6 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Chocolate Swiss Buttercream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) egg whites (from 3-4 large eggs)
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (7 1/3 ounces) roasted sugar or light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/3 cup (10 2/3 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into roughly tablespoon-sized pieces
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 1/2 - 9 ounces (1 - 1 3/4 cups) finely chopped dark chocolate, about 72%

Instructions

For the cake:

• Place oven rack in lower-middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and grease with butter or nonstick spray. 
• Combine butter and coffee in a large (5-quart) stainless steel pot, and set over low heat, stirring occasionally. After the butter has fully melted, remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has fully melted, then stir in the brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the eggs and the yolks, and stir to combine. Sift in the flour and baking soda. Whisk thoroughly to mix, then divide evenly among the prepared cake pans (there will be about 23 ounces of batter in each pan if you're using a kitchen scale).
• Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out mostly clean with a few crumbs still attached. Cool in the cake pans for about 15 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans. Peeling off the parchment, cool on a wire rack until no warmth remains, about 1 hour.

For the frosting:

• Fill a wide pot with 1-2 inches of water, and heat until gently simmering. Combine egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer, or a stainless steel bowl if using a hand mixer. Place the bowl over the pot of simmering water. Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. If it does, place a thick ring of crumpled tinfoil on the bottom of the pot to act as a "booster seat" to raise the bowl up.
• Heat egg white mixture over the simmering water, whisking constantly, until mixture reaches 185°F (85°C). This will take about 10 to 12 minutes; if the mixture is heating slowly, turn up the heat. Once ready, remove from heat and transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip at high speed for about 10 minutes, until meringue is shiny, stiff, and cool to the touch, around 90°F (32°C).
• With the mixer switched to low, add butter, 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time. Make sure that the butter is close to room temperature to best incorporate with the meringue. After all the butter has been added, the buttercream should be thick, creamy, and soft but not runny, around 72°F (22°C). Add vanilla extract and mix on low speed until combined.
• Melt chocolate, either in a microwave or over a water bath (I did it in the microwave, in 20-second increments, stirring after each increment, until it was fluid and completely melted). You can play around with the amount of chocolate you add - the lower end of the suggested quantity range will produce a "milk" chocolate profile, and additional chocolate will produce incrementally deeper chocolate flavor (I used about 7 ounces, or a little less than 1 1/2 cups).
• Add all of the warm chocolate into the mixer bowl at once, then immediately begin whipping on medium-high speed until fully incorporated. Scrape bowl with a flexible spatula, then mix again for a few minutes until light, creamy, and silky smooth. If desired, adjust to taste with additional salt, vanilla, or melted chocolate.

Assembly:

• Trim the domed tops from the cakes with a serrated knife (they don't have to be perfectly level, just free from major lumps). Place one layer on a serving plate, cut side up. Cover the top with about 1 cup of frosting. Place the second cake layer on top of the frosting cut side down (this will help to reduce crumbs on the top of the cake). Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the cake to make a smooth foundation and trap any crumbs. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes to set the crumb coat, then cover the cake with the remaining frosting.

Notes

Swiss meringue buttercream is amazingly resilient: if in doubt, just keep whipping. If the buttercream is too warm, it will appear soft and soupy. To fix, place it in the fridge for 15 minutes, then re-whip. If the buttercream is too cold, it will be firm and dense, and look slightly curdled. To fix, set the bowl over a pan of steaming water briefly, until the the edges just melting. Alternatively, scoop out a small amount of buttercream, melt it in the microwave, then add it back to the main bowl. Re-whip to homogenize. For more troubleshooting tips, see here.