Devil's Food Cake

As decadently dark, sinful, and tempting as its name implies, devil's food cake was invented in the early 1900s as an antipode to the already famed angel food cake. It emerged at a time when baking chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder became readily available and affordable, and has been an all-time favorite ever since. Among a number of other chocolate-battered cakes, the first recipes actually dubbed devil's food appeared in 1902, one published in Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, and the other in The New Dixie Receipt Book in which it was slyly subtitled "Fit for Angels". By the 1950s, Devil's food had become one of the most popular Betty Crocker cake mix flavors, and today it even has its own national holiday celebrated annually on May 19th. Devilishly delicious, this classic American dessert is made with copious amounts of dark chocolate and features a rich, velvety buttercream frosting which makes its seductive lusciousness pretty hard to resist. Devil's food cake remains an ultimate indulgence for any occasion, be it a dinner party, birthday celebration, or simply a perfect ending to a family meal.