devil's-food cake

devil's-food cake (countable and uncountable, plural devil's-food cakes)

1. Alternative form of devil's food cake.
   • 1904 November 3, “Society”, in Emporia Weekly Gazette, volume 15, number 6, Emporia, Kan., page , column 4:

     The color scheme was in black and orange, the class colors. The rooms were decorated in these colors and the refreshments were orange ice and black devil’s-food cake.

   • 1926 February 19, John Brunini, “Marion Talley a Good Cook After Victory: Plaudits of Nation Make No Change In Prima Donna”, in Daily News, volume 7, number 205, New York, N.Y., page 6, column 1:

     Devil’s-food cake, that great test of a cook’s skill, is one of her specialties.

   • 1927 December 7, Deborah, “Feminine Topics (Advertisements)”, in The Hartford Courant, volume XC, Hartford, Conn., page 12, column 8:

     If your devil’s-food cake is red in color instead of a rich dark brown, this means that you have used too much soda. It turns the cake red just as it turns biscuits yellow.

   • 1999 September 13, Michael Fumento, “Biotech food opponents’ arguments not very meaty”, in Lincoln Journal Star, Lincoln, Neb., page 5A, column 1:

     On a recent visit to France, I saw a magazine cover depicting a tomato with a burning fuse and “La Cuisine du Diable” spelled out in big bold letters below. It wasn’t about a recipe for devil’s-food cake with tomatoes, but about food developed through biotechnology.

   • 1999 November 6, Maxine Ginsberg, “Rats’ brains ease guilt of our cravings”, in Naples Daily News, page 1G:

     The scientific reasons — chemicals released and all that baloney — were too hard to digest, but the heart of the matter is that maybe the cerebellum, not the Devil, is the real cause of those urges for devil’s-food cake.

   • 2003 October 29, Heather McPherson, “Batter’s tint tends to be on red side”, in Orlando Sentinel, page G5, column 1:

     In the American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century (Clarkson Potter, $35), Jean Anderson writes there have been a number of offbeat variations on devil’s-food cake that called for mashed potatoes, ground cinnamon and cloves. Generations of bakers have added generous amounts of red food coloring to enhance the batter’s dark coloring and, fittingly for its ghoulish name, gave devil’s-food cakes a bit of a bloody tinge.