Today is Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Day

 

Nationaltoday.com says, "Devil’s food cake is not your ordinary chocolate cake. It’s a unique mix of ingredients that brings out the chocolate. Recipes often call for boiling water, instead of milk, and some even add coffee to bring out the chocolate flavor! Mixing science with desserts, the cake gets its darker color from its higher pH levels due to the added baking soda. The cake uses cocoa instead of chocolate squares, making it even fluffier! Some say the cake gets its name to distinctly contrast from the Angel’s food cake, which is much lighter in comparison. As more and more types of cakes have been created over the years, “devil’s food cake” is often used as a catch all name for a super-choclatety cake that doesn’t have nuts."

So, how might you celebrate this tasty day? Consider the following -

• Have a bake-off and Invite over all your friends and have a devil’s food cake taste-test. Judge cakes based on overall look, flavor, and moistness. Make sure to keep the baker’s identities a secret to not throw off any of the judging or sway votes! Give out prizes like the coveted blue ribbon or a coupon to take a baking class!
• Visit local bakeries - Do a little google-ing to see which places offer the extra-chocolatey goodness, and put together your delicious itinerary of stops to try. Take along a friend and see if you agree on which cake was the best! Make sure to take pictures at each stop and tag them on social media with #NationalDevilsFoodCakeDay!
• Learn about devil's food cake - the devil’s food cake was created at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel. One account even suggests that a customer loved the cake so much, that she asked for the recipe. The customer got the recipe, but it came with a price—the Waldorf also served her a bill for $100. Now that’s an expensive cake!

You will learn more about this tasty day at the following link - it is definitely a fun day to celebrate with your grandchildren! Have them help you make . . . and of course, eat, a chocolate cake! You could also consider making an extra cake in a 13x9 pan and then cut it into quarters - or at least in half. Have your grandchildren help you decorate the cakes and then take them to your neighbors to brighten their day on Chocolate Cake Day!

I found the following "fun facts" about chocolate cake and thought it would be fun to share them with you . . . 

• In America, chocolate was consumed primarily as a beverage until the 1830’s or 40’s
• According to the Dover Post, chocolate cake was born in 1765 when a doctor and a chocolate maker teamed up in an old mill. They ground up cocoa beans between huge millstones to make a thick syrup.  The liquid was poured into molds shaped like cakes, which were meant to be transformed into a beverage.
• Years later, a special dessert was created for a prince in the 1800′s by an Austrian chef.  He used two layers of chocolate dough with jam spread in the middle.  Chocolate frosting was then poured over the dessert.  Hence the birth of the chocolate cake!!
• The earliest chocolate cakes were actually yellow cakes with chocolate icing - after this, people began eating chocolate and they ended up making chocolate bars!
• There are three objectives of Chocolate Cake Day: To bake a chocolate cake. To decorate a chocolate cake. And, to eat a chocolate cake. Of course, if you are too busy to bake or decorate a cake, then just eating a chocolate cake will certainly do! 

So . . . which "fun fact" did you find to be the most surprising? I thought the one about the first chocolate "cake" made by the Austrian chef was interesting, but I certainly agree with the three "objectives" for Chocolate Cake Day! 

Enjoy Devil's Food Cake Day!