What, you ask, was chocolate cake if it wasn’t chocolate cake?

Answer: In the late 1800s, the first chocolate cakes were usually yellow cakes with chocolate frosting. Cooks didn’t have smooth-melting chocolate like we have today. Until 1890-1900, the extent of chocolate usage was mostly in drinks. Chocolate frosting or icing came next, and finally the use of chocolate in actual cake batter.

The Problem

But what should you call a chocolate batter cake? You couldn’t call it a chocolate cake, because everyone already recognized that as being a yellow cake with chocolate icing. And no one wanted to call it a chocolate batter cake. So a new name was needed.

Whether this new name derived from how sinfully rich and more chocolaty this cake was or it was simply a play on words—being the total opposite of “Angel” Food Cake—isn’t clear. What is clear is those first chocolate batter cakes became known as “Devil’s” Food Cakes.

Today there are many types of chocolate cakes, Devil’s Food being just one. The cakes have been given unique names to distinguish them from each other, leaving chocolate cake to finally refer to what we consider a standard chocolate batter cake.

There is no exact date as to when chocolate cake stopped referring to a yellow cake with chocolate icing. It happened during the twenty century, as chocolate cakes became more popular, but when exactly is different for everyone. What it really boils down to is where you were raised and what chocolate cake meant to your family. Their influence dictated the chocolate cake definition.

Bonus “Did You Knows”

DYK the Southern U.S. is credited with creating Devil’s Food Cake?

DYK the recipe showed up in print as early as 1905—some say as early as 1898, others 1902—and, more often than not, it was printed next to the Angel Food Cake recipe?

DYK May 19 is National Devil’s Food Cake Day?

DYK “deviled” usually meant “spiced up” or peppery food?

DYK Devil’s Food Cake is darker in color and is usually moister and airier than regular chocolate cake?

DYK hot or boiling water is the primary liquid in Devil’s Food Cake?

DYK a slice of regular chocolate cake without frosting has more calories than a similar-sized slice of Devil’s Food Cake with chocolate frosting? (South Florida Reporter)

DYK the chemical reaction between cocoa powder (used in traditional recipes) and baking soda usually gives the Devil’s Food Cake a reddish color?

DYK in an acid environment cocoa looks brown, but in an alkaline environment, it’s more mahogany in color?

DYK the cake will look even redder if you use Dutch cocoa, which is highly alkaline?