JoC’s devil’s food Cockaigne is different from most devil’s food recipes in that it uses chocolate in addition to cocoa, which is why it’s so good.
The method is the same as for any traditional chocolate butter cake recipe: melt the chocolate in a double boiler, cream the butter and sugar, mix the remaining dry and liquid ingredients separately in two bowls, beat the dry mix into the butter and sugar in three parts alternating with the liquid mix in two parts, and fold in the chocolate.
There are simplified recipes where you mix all the ingredients in one bowl, but you won’t get the same texture you would with the classic butter cake technique. If you want a simpler method, the JoC brownies Cockaigne recipe is also exceptionally good.
I’ve been known to use the jams and jellies I get from Mom’s in Oak Glen. Make the cake of your choosing and fill the inside with any of the jams or jellies. Frost with a simple buttercream…I actually use about half of the powdered sugar most recipes suggest but double the vanilla. Sometimes I drop a few tablespoons of the jam/jelly into the buttercream for color.
When my tree has the fruit, I make this meyer lemon bundt cake. The recipe is from cooks illustrated magazine. I also use duck eggs I get from Metzer Farm.
I always buttered and flowered my bundt pan but I got this vegalene spray from King Arthur flour and wow! What a difference. The cake slide out, no problem, no sticky bits!
If you care here is a link to Stella Parks’ instructions on icing a cake, How to Crumb-Coat a Layer Cake
I am a big fan of hers. Didn’t take pictures, but I recently made both her version of Devil’s food, and a lovely white cake, very moist and tasty. Like @robert I am a big fan of the Devil’s food Cockaigne in the older version of Joy of Cooking and I think Stella’s is better.
Someone once told me that to frost a cake properly, you need one of those turn-table things that they show in the video. The one thing I will try next time is putting the crumb coat on and then refrigerating. Maybe. I’m a bit of a defeatist when it comes to frosting and present wrapping.
No I just twirl the serving plate. I had to learn how to neatly frost a cake back in the 80s. So many of my friends were getting married and the cakes were so bad that I learned how to make wedding cakes. I still do it occasionally.
When I was a kid, I loved bakery sheet cakes with buttercream frosting and big roses on the corners.
Now? I love un-iced cakes.
I often make Laurie Colwin’s Chocolate Buttermilk cake - with the melted butter option. I adore it. Cold, with a glass of milk it tastes like the best cake version of an oreo. Room temp? Lovely with a drink at the end of the day.
In the summer I make fruit based cakes - blueberry boy bait, or strawberry buttermilk cake or heaps of cobblers (I consider them cake cousins.)
And winter? A pumpkin bread/cake with sugar and cinnamon as it’s baked in topping or? Mollie Katzens incredible fresh ginger gingerbread. It’s remarkable. Gingery Gingerbread | Cookstr.com
Made tres leches cake yesterday. I’ve only made it once before and used coconut milk because I didn’t have evaporated milk. This time I used evaporated milk. Prefer coconut milk.
last time I left the cake in the pan and this time I followed the recipe and tried to remove the cake. Think next time I’ll leave it in the pan, as the cake stuck and plus the run off milks stay in the cake.
My first time making monkey bread, which I will consider a cake since I made it in a bundt pan. Luckily, I make brioche, so I was familiar with the dough and how to make it. The recipe calls for dry ingredients into the standing mixer first, and I forgot that I always do the reverse when I make brioche. Then you don’t have to stop and scrap the bottom to make sure it is all incorporated.
Oddly, there was no recipe for the caramel sauce so I melted some caramel with evaporated milk to make the sauce. I was thinking about using cajeta, might next time.
Thank you but it was not my idea. The recipe calls for you to use sanding sugar, which I didn’t have, so used turbinado instead. It also says to butter the pan, but I have started to use this food release spray instead of buttering, which works wonders!! No more stuck bits with my bundt cakes! And makes clean up so much easier, also.
My husband has had an aversion to non-stick sprays ever since I’ve known him, so I never tried one. I finally broke down and bought this one after reading the reviews, and now he’s thrilled because it was generally him who had to clean the bundt pan, which never came clean after being buttered and floured. So I can’t compare, but I’ve made bundt cakes and cheesecakes with it and everything has come out of the pans like a dream!
Today I made Stella Parks Hummingbird cake. I used a pineapple that my husband brought back from Hawaii. The cake is great; so flavorful and moist. I thought it might be a waste of the pineapple because to me banana takes over other flavors. My concern was unfounded. The pineapple shone through loud and clear along with the warm spices and the toasted pecans. What I didn’t really taste was the banana.
I used a 10" X 3" cake pan. Next time I’ll use a 9" X 3" cake pan. I don’t like baking in my cast iron pans because I cook savory things like onions and garlic in them. I don’t want those flavors in my desserts.
I frosted it with Stella Parks Cream Cheese Frosting.
Those of you who like your sweets “not too sweet” should pass on this recipe.
Didn’t use homemade ricotta, but finally made a ricotta-semolina cheesecake! It called for lemon zest and I wanted to do something other than lemon bundt cake or lemon squares with my meyer lemons. Also, have semolina that I had yet to use from King Arthur Flour. I got the ricotta and marscapone from Guidi Marcellos in Santa Monica.
Husband loved this dessert, as it was not very sweet. It was great with coffee. Sorry, but I think you have to log in or create an account to see the recipe.