Devil's Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
The other day one of my best friends in grade school sent me a message on facebook. She asked me if I had ever told my husband about the time we were in the 6th grade and we fed a classmate some dog food. Not only that, we’d also bark every time she’d pass by the school halls to remind her of that episode…Apparently we got in trouble for it but we didn’t mind. We were happy anyway because we thought it was hilarious.
Me? Feeding dog food to some poor girl? Rrrrrruuuuffff!? Seriously, when I read what I had done, I was pretty shocked. I honestly couldn’t remember. Maybe I blocked out such horrible behaviour. After all, I’d always considered myself an ambassador to the oppressed and speaker for the persecuted… but it was quite clear… years ago – I was… a bully.
In an attempt to make myself feel better, I asked friends and family, “what silly things do you remember doing as a child that got you in trouble?” The responses ranged from mild to extreme, some shocking, some very amusing but it seemed, everyone had a story to tell!
My husband disclosed that he once painted a mural on the white wall of his bedroom as his way to express his “inner artist”.
A work colleague mentioned the time that, in order to raise money for their school’s charity, they decided to “kidnap for ransom” the school’s principal. Armed with fake toy guys and masks, they stormed the school auditorium while the clueless principal (yes, the forgot to tell him!) was whisked off to one of the classrooms. They realized, however, that things were not going as planned when the police cars started showing up….
Seems like I wasn’t the only devil running around as a kid. 🙂
Devil's Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Don’t be fooled by this cake’s name. There’s nothing demonic about it. In fact, it’s all the things I look for in a chocolate cake, a luxurious peanut butter frosting sitting on top of a rich and fudgey chocolate cake. The recipe is from one of my latest cook book buys, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Heavenly Cakes. The cake is a cinch to make and the frosting is no trouble at all.
One bite of the cake, and I’m in heaven!
Now it’s your turn, as a kid, what mischief did you get up to doing?
Devil's Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Devil’s Food Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting
Adapted From Rose’s Heavenly Cakes – by Rose Levy Beranbaum
- 40 grams chocolate, chopped
- 30 grams cocoa powder
- 120 ml boiling water
- 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 30 grams sour cream
- 115 grams flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 165 grams brown sugar
- 115 grams butter, softened
- In a small bowl, place the chocolate and cocoa powder and pour the boiling water over it. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Set aside and allow to cool. If you are short on time, place the mixture in the refrigerator until cool .
- Prepare a 23cm by 5 cm cake tin by buttering the bottom and topping with some parchment paper, then coat with baking spray. Pre-heat the oven to 170 c (fan forced)
- Mix the egg, egg yolk, sour cream and half of the chocolate mixture in a bowl.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the flour, baking soda, brown sugar and the remaining half of the chocolate mixture. Mix on low for a few seconds and then slowly incorporate the butter and mix on medium until the butter is incorporated.
- Add half of the egg mixture and mix on medium for 45 seconds to incorporate the ingredients. Add the rest of the egg mixture and mix again for another 45 seconds. The batter at this time should be light and fluffy. Ensure that you scrape down the sides of the bowl in between mixing.
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan over a wire rack for around 10 minutes and then invert onto the serving plate.
Peanut Butter Frosting
- 135 grams smooth peanut butter
- 115 grams cream cheese at room temperature
- 55 grams unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons sour cream
- 50 grams icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Mix all ingredients in a food processor until the buttercream frosting is smooth and uniform in colour.
Trissalicious 
This sounds heavenly! (No guilt about the past, Trissa — we’ve all been wicked at one time or another, and it sounds like you’ve ‘learned your lesson’ from it.)
One thing…I’ve got no scale, so I was wondering if anyone had the cup (or even metric) measurements for this/these recipe(s)? Especially the frosting, as I think I make a pretty kick-butt devil’s food cake already…. 😉
I don’t like the combo of chocolate & peanut butter, but all my roomies do, so in their names, I thank you, Trissa, and anyone who can give me the measurements!
Kim
Are you serious that is you, Trissa? OMG, can’t believe it myself you actually fed your girlfriend dog food! That is just so cruel! So, I bet you’re feeling so guilty right now! You better be GOOD, Trissa. hehe….. Btw, your devil’s food cake looks really addictive. I’m loving the thick cream on top. Yummm… Have a nice day.
Cheers, Kristy
I was a pretty good kid, but there are a handful of times that I have decided to forget 🙂 Dog food eeek!
Trissa, you just can’t go past chocolate and peanut butter, yum!
haha 😀 that’s so funny! I see the chocolate and peanut affair continues.. Mmmmm!
Haha you always have the Best stories, Trissa! That definitely does sound a bit bully-ish, but I think the important thing is that you got over that phase and are now a wonderful, compassionate person. I was actually pretty innocent and nice as a child. What causes me to wince looking back is actually what I DIDN’T realize I was doing. Like I gave half my snacks to a boy all of 2nd grade and had no idea I was being obvious about my crush. No harm done though ^_^.
I sound so boring but in 2nd grade my best friend and I decided we wanted a new pair of school shoes (private school) so I we deliberately “broke” the buckles of our shoes. Well my mother proceeded to buy me a new pair but my friend was forced to wear her old ones since it was so close to the end of the school year. It’s funny how I’ve never forgotten this.
The cake looks heavenly!
As heavenly as it might be, I bet it’s devilishly good too! Love the combo of peanut & chocolate, in whatever form that may be 🙂
Secrets are kept for a reason.
Oh! What a yummie looking cake…chocolate and peanut butter frosting…perfect match!
Great looking cake Trissa and well, on the misschief part… How long do I have to fill this space?? I’ve done many many bad things when I was little and I am sure my parents never thought anything would come of me… I once painted on our entire living room wall with fingerpaint the day after my father had redecorated the entire room. I think I thought it was a perfectly clean painting board..lol… Imagine the look on my parents face when they came downstairs in the morning….
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LOL! I’m trying to remember what horrible things I did as a kid. I’m sure there were plenty.
but I’d love to drown my sorrows buy eating this cake when I remember them!
CHOCOLATE AND PEANUT BUTTER!
combination made in heaven.
hahaha! feeding of dog food to another? that’s hilarious!
reminds me of one of the episodes on cake boss.
naw don’t worry about it,
at least someone had fun! heh.
this looks amazing…nothing better than peanutbutter and chocolate!
This cake looks like the perfect thing to help me forget about what a mischievous creature I was back in kindergarten…I seem to remember something about creating beautiful artwork on the chalkboard with colored pencils. 😀
What I can remember was sneaking behind the curtains with a pack of sugar cubes and eating them instead of breakfast, lunch and dinner. *Sigh* I was slim then!
Oh my poor girl! But I tasted dog food myself, my own will =P it’s really tasteless. I’m bookmarking this!
Isn’t that a sad story. As a teacher of middle school aged kids – this is a time they are changed forever by the actions of their peers… and, yes, I have a story – sadly – like yours. I wasn’t the perpetrator – but I may as well have been. It was my best friend, but I laughed. I was uncomfortable, and just laughed and that definitely goaded her on. There was a boy in grade 8 that she mercilessly bullied and I thought it was hilarious. I knew it was mean, but really never put myself in his shoes. Somehow, I couldn’t relate to his feelings as he was so ugly he seemed “subhuman” somehow. Can you imagine? Yet, I would never initiate or do anything like that. At our 10th reunion, he drove up in a porsche and was gorgeous. He was in the computer business – yes, he was very smart. The “joke” was definitely on us… and we learned the bullying motivated him. Now, that is unusual, and takes great quality of character. I have been paying penance for that my whole life… and will continue to, forever.
LOL that’s mean! I’m wondering how did you get her to eat it, what did you say it was?
Apparently on my first day of kindergarden, some boy came up to me and kissed me. What did I do? Kicked him and pushed him away.. 😛 I also remember in year 4, I chocked a guy until he started turning red in the face and was chocking. I felt bad so I gave him $1 to shut up LOL
How things have changed! A few days ago my daughter spent two days at a friends home to do just what your husband did. All totally approved of by the girl’s mum! The result of their efforts is a bright yellow wall with rainbows, flowers and butterflys! SO maybe not so devilish after all. But I do think your cake is devilish… devishly good!!! And peanut butter frosting! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!
I was always punished for talking too much!
What a marvelous cake, Trissa. So very decadent and naughty…like you were! Even though I am not a peanut butter lover in baked goods, this really looks delish.
All you have to do is say the words “peanut butter” and I am there daaaaaahling. This looks incredible.
*kisses* HH
Mmm….beautiful and delicious it must be. Love your naughty story. I think I love to pull dog’s and cat’s tails 😀
I did what your husband did. Painted a mural on a wall of my bedroom. My mother though was cool with it! I was the one who had to live with it!
Great cake Trissa. I love chocolate!
Magda
whatever do you mean? i was (and clearly still am) a perfect angel… 🙂
i do enjoy a good devil’s food cake, but the major draw for me here is that thick layer of luscious frosting. bravo, trissa!
That looks heavenly!
I was a good girl 😉 but I probably teased my little brother a little more than I should have…
your devil’s cake just look wicked good. and lol at your “evil deed” as a kid, it’s always fun to read your post =)
do you remember the time you threw Monjie’s clothes into the swimming pool?
I love that peanut butter frosting. I could think of so many things I could eat with that frosting. Not to mention that great looking cake.
this looks fantastic trissa, and i think i have all those ingreds at home… :O)
This looks gorgeous Trissa! I don’t remember doing anything that bad…. maybe I’ve blocked out all those bad experiences!
Drool! I adore peanut butter frosting. That book is on my list (I’m compiling one so I can by myself a whole heap of books when my birthday rolls around in October), even though I already have Cake Bible 🙂
Erm, I was a pretty mischievous kid – we once caught guppies and put it into our class teacher’s drink container for an April Fool’s joke. Well, to be fair, he dared us to do something original!
Ooh – I love this post for all sorts of childhood reasons. Firstly – I first heard about Devil’s food cake in a Disney cartoon called Silly Symphonies. I was obsessed with that cartoon. Dancing treats and cupcakes.. No wonder I still love food!
As for being a devil – I think my brother and I fought a great deal but as he was 6 yrs older, he had the clear advantage. My strength was being the youngest so I would frequently, for no reason whatsoever burst into tears, point and my brother and run to my room. Of course, our parents would always believe me.. *evil laughter*
Drawing on walls, yeah, I can totally relate to that. It was one of those absolutely forbidden things I always itched to do. Cake looks lovely by the way. I’m a big fan of the devil’s food cake recipe, but I haven’t tried the peanut butter frosting yet.
OMG peanut butter cream cheese frosting! I’d be devilishly naughty and dip pieces of cake directly into a bowl of that fluffy frosting, he he.
Hmmm… as a kid I remember putting glue on the bottom of classmates chairs while they went to sharpen their pencils, swapping the teacher’s whiteboard pen with permanent marker, and the whole class turning all our chairs and desks around so the teacher would walk in and everything was backwards. Nothing like kidnapping though! Wow.
Woah!!!!…I’d hate to cross you Trissa! LOL! Mischief was my middle name growing up. I remember doing all sorts of things…I’ll leave that to tell you in person! OK…I’m in love with this cake and especially that decadent peanut butter frosting! The whole combination sounds calorific!
This looks delicious and rich, I’ve never tried peanut butter frosting before!
First of all, love the cake! I am happily imagining its flavor because that’s all I can do – I have a mild PB intolerance. So, would it be terrible if I substituted another nut butter for that ingredient here?
Second, I was a holy terror as a youngster. At the top of the list of infractions was the time I stuck a piece of gum in a classmate’s hair. Gum does not come out of hair . The fact that it was a boy made the fact that he had to have his hair shaved off only a little less worse . . . Darn, now I feel guilty and don’t deserve this cake . . .
haha you naughty! 😀
And I am glad u like the book! Still remember our “discussion” (or rather cookbook impulse moments) on twitter!
Trissa, that peanut butter frosting is seriously amazing!
By the way, I’ve never fed anyone dog food, but a colleague once gave someone she didn’t like a dog biscuit. He said it was ‘chewy’…
Haha!! I love this post!
I was very tame as a child… The only thing I remember getting called to the principal’s office for was bringing my walkie-talkies to school, putting them on the same frequency as the bus drivers had theirs and then talking to them.
I thought it would be funny, but apparently I was wrong… Heh…
Rose’s cakes are really good! I think I’d be happy just eating the cake plain. 🙂 Not spillin’ the mischief from my kiddy days here. But if I met you Trissa, I’d tell you. Hahaha!
I once punched a boy in the face for chasing me around the playground and trying to kiss me. got into big big trouble because I broke his tooth. when I think about it now I reckon he deserved it. but I felt like the devil when it happened.
BTW your devils food cake looks divine 🙂
Who can resist such a classic devil cake! The peanut butter frosting is really the icing on the cake.
Yummy, yummy, yummy!!! Can I have some left overs if still available?
You’ve prompted me to reminisce about similar devilish deeds I had committed myself… I don’t think I have done many naughty things but the one incident which stood out for me was me feigning faint to escape my biology exams. I remember I had to powder my lips so that they would look pale and sick when I go to school the next day… Love the peanut butter frosting…
We were all naughty when we were kids. I had my fair share! Hmmm… maybe too much and too naughty. I had to the flee the country and come here… ** JOKING!**
This was seriously good cake! One slice was not enough! The chocolate cake was just the right flavor or richness and the peanut butter icing was not overwhelming, it was the perfect foil! Thanks for sharing Tris!
I wish I had a story to tell, but I was, in essence, the perfect child – I lived vicariously through the books I had my nose stuck in 24hours a day so I felt no need for mischief, my brother on the other hand, I could write epic tomes about his exploits…
Your devil’s cake looks sinfully delicious 😉
Wickedly delicious! I love how the frosting is half the thickness of the actual cake
Great looking devil’s food! I on the other hand, identified more with angel food cake as a child. No, I wasn’t a suck-up, but I was bullied a few times when I was in primary school. Later in grade 5, when I started to catch up to the bigger boys in size, I learned that a good retaliative whack in the head or a swift kick in the shins was a good defense.
I love devil’s food (and actually dislike angel food!) I’ll contemplate using the Beranbaum recipe now that you’ve reminded me of it. The only mischief I ever got into was in the kitchen. I tried to make my own potato chips with a veggie peeler when I was 8 years old. I ended up with an oil-splattered kitchen and 3 chips.