This Devil’s Food Cake from Zoë Bakes Cakes is the best chocolate cake recipe I have ever tried and believe me, over the past 20+ years, I’ve tried them all. It is perfect for devil’s food cupcakes with cream cheese icing.
Want a Devil’s Food Cake fit for a celebration? Try my layer cake with Champange Buttercream!
My Secret Devil’s Food Cake Ingredients
- Lyle’s Golden Syrup
- Rum
- Coffee
The dark chocolate cake has a texture that is smooth and rich. The flavor is not overly sweet, because of the intensity of the coffee (you don’t actually taste the coffee, it just cuts the sweet). The rum makes it a great match for cream cheese frosting sweetened with Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
If you haven’t tried Lyle’s you are in for a huge treat and a new addiction. I first had it when a friend from South Africa gave it to me on a peanut butter sandwich. It is a decidedly British snack and like nothing you’ve ever had before. It’s a syrup made of sugar cane that looks and feels like honey, but the taste is not nearly as cloying. It can be found in some grocery stores and even on Amazon, gotta’ love the internet!
How to Pipe Icing
For those of you who want to learn to decorate your devil’s food cupcakes with a little more flair, here is a post on piping icing roses.
pottery by Kevin Caufield
Ingredients
Devil’s Food Cupcakes
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 2 1/3 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup (50g) Cocoa Powder (I like the flavor and color of Dutch-processed cocoa but Natural cocoa produces a more even crumb)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/8 cups (300ml) hot coffee
- 1/4 cup rum
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Icing
- 1 1/2 pounds (680g) package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I am really brand loyal, having tried lots!), softened
- 1 1/2 cups (330g) unsalted butter softened
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract optional
- 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 5 cups (600g) confectioner's sugar
- 2 Tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup use honey if you are in a pinch
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and prepare 1 dozen large muffin tins with Paper Baking Cups (or two 9-inch rounds).
- Combine all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and whisk until combined, set aside.
- Whisk together, eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk, while slowly adding the coffee and rum to the batter and whisk until totally blended and smooth, about 2 minutes. The batter will be quite runny.
- Fill a measuring cup or pitcher with the batter and then fill the muffin cups about 3/4 full.
- Bake the devil's food cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes (about 25-30 for 9-inch rounds) or until a tester comes out clean.
- Allow to cool on a cake rack and then frost with cream cheese icing (recipe follows).
- Cream Cheese Icing: Combine all the ingredients in a medium sized bowl and cream together until smooth. I used a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip to decorate these devil’s food cupcakes. You may want to double the icing recipe just in case you find yourself dipping into the bowl with a spoon!
Made these for a birthday and they were outstanding. Moist and delicious. Everyone raved about how good they were. Used your American Buttercream recipe from Zoe Bakes Cakes. Yum!
I made this in 2 8″ pans for a 4 layer cake with French buttercream. The cake batter is very liquid which I wasn’t used to but it turned out wonderful. So moist and delicious. Yummy
Hello Zoe! I can’t wait to make these delicious cupcakes!
Question: I don’t have the large/jumbo muffin tin, but I have 5.5 oz large foil baking cups. They measure 2.3 inches across the bottom and are 1.57 inches tall. Would I still need to check the baking time after 18 minutes, or would you recommend checking sooner?
Thanks!
~ Robin ~
Hi Robin,
If you are baking smaller cupcakes, then do check them a few minutes early. You can generally peek in the window and see if they look set on top, so you don’t have to open the door too often. If they look set, then use a tester to make sure they are done.
Thanks! Zoë
I made the devils food cupcakes in this recipe and paired it with my own recipe for frosting, so I can only speak to the cupcakes, but can I give this more than 5 stars? I love desserts as long as they are not too sweet. My husband, on the other hand, hates most desserts because they tend to be too sweet for him, which is unfortunate because I love to bake: Well, I made these for a dinner party, and we are both OBSESSED. He was devastated because I didn’t have extra for at home, so I made a second batch.
We are so thrilled you and your husband enjoyed them, Liz! Thank you so much for coming back to leave a rating/review!
These cupcakes are terrific. I make any recipe that says ‘best chocolate cake recipe’ and this one met that criteria. I didn’t get the golden syrup so I used honey – will be making thesw again so I will try it next time. Used Valhrona cocoa – pricey but a must forr great chocolate cake. Cut the frosting recipe way down – it’s super good but I prefer mostly cake.
Another absolutely perfect recipe. These are amazing. They’re so moist, not overly sweet and were delicious paired with a dairy-free vanilla frosting on half and a dairy-free chocolate frosting on the other half. To keep the cupcakes dairy free I used soymilk with 1 tbsp white vinegar to replace the buttermilk. These were such a hit, I will be making them every year for my son’s birthday!
Hello Zoe,
I just came across your devils food cupcake recipe here. I’d like to know, you say make in a large 12 cavity muffin pan not a regular one.What do you mean by this?
Am I supposed to use a pan that is for making actual muffins not cupcakes? Or are you calling cupcakes muffins? Or are we supposed to use jumbo cupcake pans? I have so many pans. I know different regions have different terminology for baking and supplies so I want to be certain of the details. I live in the United States.
I’m very appreciative of your response.
(*_*)
Chelle
Thanks for these, Zoe… I love them!!
I just made a fresh batch but I wanted some smaller ones to stash in the freezer for emergencies. So, in case this is helpful info for anyone… I got 48 mini cupcakes (baked them for 9 mins) plus 19 regular cupcakes (baked them 25 mins). Not sure why the regular ones took so long to bake, but hey! Now to find space in the freezer…
Hello Zoe and team
Thank you for such a nice recipe. Can you please advise me on how to bake this recipe into layer cake? What size cake tins do I need to use and how many? This will be for a special birthday party so I want to give it my best shot.
Please let me know-Thank you so much
Hi Kiran,
You can find the instructions for baking in 9-inch cake pans in the recipe below, but you could also use 8-inch pans for a thicker layer, which take closer to 30 minutes to bake.
Enjoy, Zoë
Do I need to make any adjustments to recipe for 5000 foot elevation?
Hi Lucy,
Here is a post that may help. It can take some experimenting, but it’s tasty on the way. https://zoebakescom.bigscoots-staging.com/2021/08/31/baking-at-high-altitudes/
Thanks, Zoë
I made these for a fourth of July party this weekend and everyone wanted to know what “bakery” I purchased them from! They were absolutely delicious and pretty to boot! I added an large organic raspberry for the center of the frosted top surrounded by blueberries for a festive finish. The tartness of the berries bursting in your mouth with the backdrop of the lemon cream cheese was to die for! I also use Kerrygold butter for all my baking and this frosting was no exception. Kerrygold (grassfed Irish butter) is very gold so the frosting comes out more cream-colored. But absolutely delicious and I think using high-quality butter makes a HUGE difference in the finished product. Also, I used organic coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. It not only further brings out a deeper chocolate flavor, but it s MUCH HEALTHIER OIL than vegetable oil (which is a seed oil that causes inflammation in the body). I am an RN and holistic nutritionist so I substitute coconut oil for literally all of my baking. I melt it in the microwave and use the exact same amount the recipe calls for (coconut oil works excellent for brownie recipes too!). Coconut oil also provides a much richer, denser baked good (seriously, the cupcakes weigh twice as much). They also stay moister MUCH longer and don’t dry out. This is going to be my new devil’s food cupcake/cake recipe going forward. The cream cheese recipe is also the best I’ve ever tasted. BRAVO Zoe!!
I just bought a Miele oven and need to know if the recipes in Zöe’s book should be baked on ‘bake’ or convection bake.
Thanks! Love the book.
Hi Wendy! Always the “bake” setting unless otherwise specified in the recipe.
Zoe!! OMG!! THIS cake… My mom and I made it during our bake date via FaceTime today for my birthday. I’m an experienced baker and have made a thousand chocolate cakes in my life. THIS is by far the best one! I’m vegan, so I swapped out some things, but my mom followed the recipe exactly. We both couldn’t believe how fantastic the cake turned out. We baked it in a dark bundt pan at 325F for 60 min and decorated it with your cream cheese frosting and some raspberries. My entire family agrees that we never need to try a new chocolate cake recipe ever again! Thank you so much for making my birthday special. My dad, who doesn’t really like chocolate cake, already requested this cake for his birthday. I’m pre-ordering your book today! I can’t wait to see it and bake from it.
Hi…why is there no easy way to print your recipes without ads an photos and ten pieces of paper? I subscribe to your newsletter and want to try your fab sounding recipes but there is no easy print button that just prints the recipe…am I missing something???
Hi Debora,
The short answer is: we’re working on it! We have been adding printable recipe cards at the bottom of new recipes, but because Zoë has hundreds of recipes on her site, we haven’t gotten to them all yet! I went ahead and added a recipe card to this recipe for you so you can print it more easily. Cheers!