Devil's Food White Out Cake (TWD)

The Tuesdays With Dorie bakers can let out a collective cheer --- someone finally chose the cover cake!! Many thanks to Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater, as she selected Devil's Food White-Out Cake for this week's recipe from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Dorie Greenspan describes this dessert as "a dig-into kind of cake, not one meant to be cut daintily or eaten with restraint". Well, with that kind of introduction, who wouldn't want to make this! The cake recipe consists of a super moist chocolate cake that is studded with chunks of chocolate. The dense, fudgy cake layers are then covered with a fluffy white frosting.

As I had a quite a bit of other dessert making planned this weekend, I opted to make half of the recipe. I followed the recipe as written, using Callebaut bittersweet for the melted and chunked chocolate, as well as Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder.

The cake batter was poured and baked in an 8" square pan. Once cooled, I cut the square in half and stacked the two halves to create this rectangular loaf. I didn't bother cutting the cake crossswise for more layers --- I'll admit I was being lazy about the process, but I do prefer having a higher cake to frosting ratio, so the thicker cake layers are much more preferable to me. I loved making the frosting --- it never ceases to amaze me how a few egg whites, sugar and water can transform into this marshmallow-y goodness.

Instead of crumbling a cake layer to decorate the cake exterior, I couldn't resist reaching for my kitchen torch to toast the frosting on the finished cake.

In a way, this cake reminded me of a favorite snack cake of my childhood, Hostess Suzy-Qs --- but a much more delicious, decadent version (and without the transfats and artificial flavorings/stablizers).

The cake layers were perfectly moist and tender, with an intensely deep chocolate flavor. The light and airy marshmallow frosting is a fantastic complement to the cake. I wouldn't change a thing about this combination.

Thanks Stephanie for a terrific pick this week --- for the recipe, please visit Stephanie's blog or visit NPR (which highlighted this recipe a while back). Also, be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see other delicious versions of this cake.