High-Altitude Devil’s Food Cake

Today’s recipe is for a rich, chocolatey Devil’s Food Cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and frosted with a toasted Swiss meringue buttercream. Chocolate cake can be particularly difficult at higher altitudes, but this is the perfect recipe for a soft and rich cake that you can use for anything you like.

I love the addition of a toasted buttercream here because it gives some extra depth to an already wonderful form of frosting- if you’ve never made Swiss meringue buttercream, this is a super fun one to start with. Let’s get to it!

How to Make High-Altitude Devil’s Food Cake

Devil’s food cake is traditionally a cocoa powder-based cake recipe, so we’re Dutch-processed cocoa powder in this recipe. The ingredients are pretty straight forward here- we’re using coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor and buttermilk to keep the cake soft and fluffy.

Start out by whisking together the dry ingredients in a bowl. For this recipe that includes cake flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder. If you’ve been following my recipes for a while, then you know I only use Dutch-processed cocoa powder for deeply chocolate flavor.

In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and sugar until combined, and then add in the eggs and vanilla extract.

From there, it’s time to start stirring in the dry mixture and the buttermilk in alternating additions. You want to start and finish with the dry ingredients. The batter will be fairly thick at this point.

Then we’re adding in a cup of hot coffee. This helps work to boost the chocolate flavor throughout the cake and also adds some extra moisture. Then it’s off to the oven with your finished cake batter.

For the buttercream, we’re toasting the meringue before adding in the butter. I like to toast it a couple of times, beating between each time, which gives the buttercream plenty of toasty bits running through it.

Then it’s time to fill and frost your cake with the chocolate ganache and toasted buttercream. Be sure to trim the cake layers to make for flat, even layers that are easy to fill and frost. I like to top the cake with sprinkles and berries and then serve it. Enjoy!

Tips & Tricks for High-Altitude Devil’s Food Cake

Here are my tips and tricks for the best Devil’s Food Cake you’ll ever have:

• Do I have to use Dutch-processed cocoa powder? Yes, I find that it’s really needed for high-altitude baking, and it brings the best flavor to this cake. Do not swap in natural cocoa powder here!
• Can I mix this cake by hand? Yes, it’s an easy one to mix entirely by hand and that helps avoid over-mixing.
• Do I have to use coffee? The coffee will not make the cake taste like coffee, but instead it brings out the chocolate flavor. You can replace it with hot water if needed, but I recommend going with the coffee here.
• Do I have to use the ganache filling? You can skip it if you’d prefer, but you may want to make an extra half batch of the frosting to ensure you have enough here.
• Frost the cake with any frosting you like but I really love the toasted Swiss Meringue Buttercream- you can swap in any of your favorite frostings though if you prefer!
• How do I know when the cakes are finished baking? The cakes should be puffed and look set, and a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center should come out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.
• Don’t skip any of the cooling steps. An important pieces to making a layer cake is working with everything at room temp so nothing melts- let your cake layers cool completely, as well as the ganache filling!
• I’m at about 5,000 ft. above sea level and I find that most people who live between about 3,000-7,000 ft. above sea level do not need to make any adjustments to my recipes.

Enjoy!

5 from 1 vote

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High-Altitude Devil’s Food Cake

Servings 16 slices

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 3 cups cake flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup hot coffee

For the filling:

• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 6 oz chopped dark chocolate
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. salt

For the frosting:

• 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups softened butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Instructions

For the cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, greasing the pans lightly.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and vegetable oil until combined. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.
4. Whisk in about 1/3 of the dry mixture until combined, and then about 1/2 of the buttermilk, again whisking until combined. Repeat this process until all of the dry ingredients and buttermilk have been mixed in.
5. Pour in the hot coffee and whisk until mixed completely through. Pour the batter into your prepared cake pans.
6. Bake for 35-38 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. While the cakes are still warm, turn them out onto plastic wrap and wrap tightly. Cool the cakes completely before frosting.

For the filling:

1. In a medium microwave safe bowl, microwave the heavy cream until just starting to simmer, about 1 minute.
2. Stir in the chopped chocolate and let the mixture sit for 2-3 minutes. Then whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Whisk in the vanilla extract and salt.
3. Cover the bowl and let this mixture come to room temperature while your cakes cool and you make the frosting.

For the frosting:

1. In a large bowl over a double-boiler, stir the egg whites and sugar together until the sugar is well dissolved, and the mixture is about 140-150 degrees. This should take about 5-10 minutes.
2. Transfer the mixture to a stand mixer, and whip with the whisk attachment on medium speed for 8-10 minutes, or until the mixture has reached stiff peaks, and the outside of the bowl feels completely cool to the touch.
3. Using a kitchen torch, torch the meringue in the bowl until deeply golden brown on top, and then continue mixing the meringue until the torched pieces are mixed through. Repeat this process 2-3 more times, or until you have toasty bits running throughout the mixture.
4. With the mixer running, slowly add the butter about 1 tablespoon at a time until it is completed added. The mixture will go through stages of textures as you continue to beat it, increasing the speed to high after all the butter has been added. It will look thin at first, then will look curdled, but eventually will come together. If you have beaten the frosting for 5-10 minutes, and it still looks curdled, try adding an additional 2 tbs. of butter, and continue beating until light, fluffy, and smooth. Beat in the vanilla and salt.
5. To frost the cake, trim the cake layers to make even flat layers. Fill the layers by piping a little bit of frosting around the edges of each layer, and then spreading the chocolate ganache filling evenly in the center. Then frost the outside of the cake and decorate as desired. Enjoy!

Nicole Hampton

Hello and welcome! My name is Nicole, and Dough-eyed is a food blog for people who want to bake for their family and friends in high-altitude areas. Think of me as a friendly voice there with you in the kitchen, here to give you confidence when you’re baking, and to help you with the struggles of baking at high-altitude. Come back every week for new recipes, tips, and advice on high-altitude baking!