Devil’s (in the details) Food Cake

No one can call my family humourless. Having read about the rash of kitchen disasters on my blog, their birthday wishes and my cake were presented with an electric candle. Guess Mom didn’t want her dining room set afire.

She needn’t have worried. I’d gotten all the bad culinary karma out of my system earlier in the day.

This is about 1 cup of devil’s food cake overspilled in my oven. I was rushing and couldn’t find the muffin tins. So despite the recipe clearly stating standard 1 1/2″ high cake pans were too shallow, I ignored the advice to make cupcakes with the extra batter and topped up the tins. Yes, I pushed my luck.

And it pushed back. And over the edge.

The cake turned out fine despite the mess. Besides, who cares when sins of omission can easily be hidden beneath frosting.

Then I rushed the fudge icing. It’s made with hot espresso to “wake up” the cocoa. Warm icing isn’t like a nice firm buttercream. It’s a bit goopy.

Okay, very goopy.

On the upside, once cooled, the icing made an interesting wave effect.

While I won’t win any awards for presentation, the cake was rich, moist and absolutely delicious.

The biggest shock of all? It contained an ingredient I hate — beets! Way back in 2007, one of my New Year’s resolutions was to find one beet recipe that wouldn’t make me gag. And this is it! Let’s hope crossing this item off my list erases all bad vibes connected to my disdain.

Now that the curse is lifted, I plan on making this decadent devil’s food cake again. Only next time, I’ll have muffin tins standing by, factor in cooling time and offer thanks to the gods of root vegetables.