ISSUE 68, CAKES, Part 5: Devil's Food
Devil’s Food
A story appeared in in American newspapers in the 1820s entitled “Christmas Pies” about an Episcopal Family given to Christmas festivities and food in Puritan New England who lose their savor for these edible pleasures when they come to believe Christmas Pies, stolen by a thieving local deacon from a secure oven by the removal of some bricks, had been taken by the devil for food. So the idea of sumptuous dessert = devil’s food began to circulate in the United States. This is twenty years before French confectioners make chocolate cake the sensation in the shop windows of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Before the explicit connection of Devil’s Food with a kind of dark chocolate cake took place, other edibles were called “devil’s food”—Rev. Edward Bromley, Baptist minister at Norwood Massachusetts condemned baked beans as “Devil’s Food” in winter of 1876, inspiring nationwide derision in newspapers. Too humble a dish to steal someone’s soul.
1900 appears to be the year when Devil’s Food Cake came into public consciousness. A Philadelphia Inquirer subscriber wrote requesting a recipe, and the Women’s Page editor answered, “I am very sorry I cannot furnish you a recipe for this cake; have looked over a number of cookbooks without success” (Nov. 23, 1900). Fortunately two subscribers replied with detailed recipes, supplying the first airing of this cake classic in a big city American newspaper. (see recipe below) By 1903 Lutey’s Grocery in Anaconda, Montana was offering Devil’s Food Cake in its Steam Bakery offerings in both two layers (45 cents) and four layers (60 cents) versions. The newspaper recipes presumed you had a good stock of baking chocolate bars in your cupboard.
When Nebraska Consolidatde Mills secured the rights to sell cake mixes under the name Duncan Hines in 1953, the next great phase of Devil’s Food Cake history commenced—Devil’s Food Cake Mix. The formulators had two goals: creating a mix that would result in a “perfectly moist” cake texture, and creating a product that even the most untrained bakers could use to produce a creditable cake. A recent change in the formulation resulted in a drier cake and a consumer uproar. The classic mix was reintroduced and made available.
Now when flourless chocolate cakes, chocolate torts, deconstructed snickers bars, and death by chocolate dominate the dessert menus of restaurants, Devil’s Food Cake has been relegated to the unseen subterranean vaults where fallen angels dwell. But any cook at home can conjure a devil’s food cake by a quick trip to the baking aisle of the local grocery store.