Devil’s Food Cake from Scratch – with Oreos!

Hi guys! Welcome back to my site. Today I am going to share my devil’s food cake from scratch recipe – a dessert I made last night that went wonderfully well, especially considering it was my first attempt too. And guess what – I broke all of my rules doing it. But we can get to that later. I don’t have a very sweet tooth. I much prefer spicy and salty food over desserts any day, and frequently ask for dishes to be made extra spicy at restaurants. That being said, I have been feeling completely unlike myself these last couple of weeks. Reaching for ice cream and cookies more than once every few weeks? Totally not like me at all.

But then last night I had a revelation. Why fight it when you can embrace it? At least that is what I told myself since it is midterms season here in college 😉 So I hauled myself to the nearest Albertsons and did a bunch of brainstorming. I didn’t even know that I was going to end up choosing a more elaborate recipe than I had ever tried before. Like I said, I am more of a spicy/savory person, so baking has been a bit out of my scope. But not after last night!

Learning Something New

The first thing I learned about baking is that it is such an investment! Since the majority of my baking experience has happened at my parents’ house, where we have an electric whisk, baking pans, and other baking essentials I guess I didn’t think about buying them in college. But I did not want to take any shortcuts with my experiment – I can do that next time now that I know what to expect! I wanted to invest in some of a baker’s essential tools, such as a good cupcake baking pan and decorating frosting tips.

I finally landed on a devil’s food cake recipe, and I decided I was going to make it from scratch. And I was going to add a little minty personal touch, as I tend to do with a lot of my recipes, so I added some delicious Mint Oreos. But then I realized something: baking this cake without shortcuts would require me to break all of my rules.

My Rules

Ah yes, my rules. I have always advocated for healthy cooking and baking, having always experimented with substitute foods to replace out the traditional and heart attack inducing fillers. If you don’t believe me, go check out my healthy vegan brownies recipe 😉 I have found a ton of wonderful substitutes for cookies and brownies, but I realized that I could not use them this time, at least not the very first time I tried something. So I threw all my rules out the window.

If you are looking for something indulgent that will probably make you pass out in a food coma, then you have come to the right place! If not, then you’re out of luck this time. This is a cheat day dessert!

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Ingredients

Ingredients for the cake

Makes 10 large-sized cupcakes

• 1 stick softened butter
• 1 cup sour cream (don’t worry – it is here purely for adding moisture to the cake and you won’t taste it at all!)
• 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar (I use confectioner’s sugar for more than just decoration because it helps yield a soft and fluffy texture to the overall product!)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Crushed Mint Oreos to decorate (save the cream for frosting)

Ingredients for mint buttercream

• 2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 sticks butter
• Melted mint cream from 5-6 oreos
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• 2-3 drops green food coloring

Instructions

Instructions: Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix butter and sour cream in microwavable bowl. Microwave in increments of 30 sec, stirring intermittently, until butter begins to melt. Make sure you don’t microwave too much as this can denature the sour cream and destroy its quality.
3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until combined.
4. Whisk in butter and sour cream mixture.
5. In a separate bowl, lightly mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt.
6. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in small increments, whisking consistently until paste has formed.
7. Spray cupcake pan with nonstick spray and divide out batter.
8. Bake for 15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Instructions: Buttercream

1. Whisk the butter, sugar, mint cream, and peppermint extract together until uniform smooth consistency.
2. Mix in food coloring.

Decorating:

1. Transfer the buttercream into a plastic frosting dispenser and attach desired lid.
2. Frost away!!
3. Sprinkle crushed Oreos.
4. Enjoy!

Takeaways

Because this was my first time making these cupcakes and because I usually use substitutes for the unhealthy stuff, I totally underestimated how much these would rise in the oven. So they rose a lot and my cupcakes ended up looking more like jumbo muffins. LOL but they were nice and *moist* and fluffy. I really like this recipe because it did not end up tasting too sweet – I find that so off-putting! I also liked how the buttercream came out super light and frothy, instead of some heavy and cloyingly sweet frosting you end up with in store bought cupcakes.

All in all, great learning experience and great results! Some takeaways for the next time I make them:

1. Electric whisk is a must! I didn’t have one this time so my friend and I used a whole lot of elbow grease to get the desired consistency.
2. Put smaller dollops of batter into cupcake pans to keep cupcakes mini, as they are meant to be 😉
3. Leave a lot of time for the recipe because even though the baking times themselves are reasonable, the prep time is really long. The whole process took me more than an hour and it wasn’t passive work – it was labor intensive.

I’d love to hear what you guys think of this recipe! So leave me comments and questions and let me know how it goes and I will see you next time!