Moist Devil's Food Cake

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 cups boiling water
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Recipe

• 1 adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees.
• 2 grease three 8-inch pans, line bottom of each pan with parchment paper round, grease agin and flour.
• 3 combine chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth.
• 4 sift together flours, baking soda, and salt onto large bowl and set aside.
• 5 place butter in bowl of standing mixer and beat at medium-high speed until creamy, about 1 minute.
• 6 add brown sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• 7 stop mixer and scrape down bowl.
• 8 increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition.
• 9 reduce speed to medium; add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined, about 10 seconds.
• 10 stop mixer and scrape down bowl.
• 11 with mixer on low, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture.
• 12 repeat, ending with flour mixture; beat until just combined, about 15 seconds.
• 13 do not overbeat.
• 14 remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl and mix gently to be certain all ingredients are combined.
• 15 divide batter evenly among cake pans, smooth batter to edges of pan with angled spatula.
• 16 if baking three 8-inch cakes, place two pans on lower-middle rack and one on upper-middle rack.
• 17 bake until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes for 8-inch cakes.
• 18 cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes.
• 19 run knife around pan perimeter to loosen.
• 20 invert cakes onto large plate; peel off parchment, and reinvert onto lightly greased rack.
• 21 cool completely before frosting.