The Cake Slice presents: Mile-High Devil's Food Cake w/ Brown Sugar Buttercream

This month, The Cake Slice bakers made the Mile-High Devil's Food Cake from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes. We had a choice to make either a 7-minute frosting or a meringue buttercream, both of which are flavored with brown sugar. Of course I chose to make the meringue buttercream (I made it Swiss-style instead of following the Italian-style instructions in the recipe, as I am the self-proclaimed "Queen of SMBC!"). I made this cake at my cousin Stephanie's house while I was in North Carolina for Mother's Day. We LOVE to bake together, but she lives so far away that we hardly ever see each other. Making the cake was supposed to be a joint effort, but I did all the work while she took pictures. She's lucky I love her so much! ;P

The recipe calls for making the layers in 8-inch pans. We made ours in 9-inch pans, and the batter rose perfectly to the top. If you make these in 8-inch pans, make sure they are at least 2 inches deep! It was quite an experience trying to make the Swiss meringue buttercream without my stand mixer. Stephanie's stand mixer only came with the paddle attachment, so I wasn't sure the SMBC would come together without the whisk attachment. However, it IS possible! After heating it over the double boiler, we poured it into the bowl of the stand mixer and beat it with a hand mixer on high until it was cooled. My arms were about to fall off because it took about 8 minutes! At this point, it was still soupy, not at all like the thick, marshmallowy consistency you get when you whip it with the whisk attachment in a stand mixer. We attached the bowl to the stand mixer with the paddle attachment and turned it on high. I didn't think the paddle would fluff up the meringue, but it did! After a few minutes, it became fluffy just like if we had used the whisk! We added the butter (only 2 1/2 sticks, because that's the amount I usually use for 5 egg whites). It did it's usual "curdle-before-magically-transforming-into-perfect-frosting" thing. Then, not only did I bake the cake... I got stuck frosting the cake... my least favorite part of cake-making! It was well worth the struggle because the cake was SO DELICIOUS! It was slightly more dense than other devil's food cakes I've made. I'm chalking that up to the brown sugar. But it was perfectly moist and soft. And the buttercream rocked, of course! I couldn't believe how quickly the cake got eaten. We made it Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon people were fighting for the last slice!

Pretty much the only chance I get for face time on my own blog is when the camera is in Stephanie's hands! So here I am, pouring the batter into the pans! ;D Of course we toothpicked all three layers to be sure they were done!
And here's me again, *ahem* looking slightly less attractive, while eyeballing the level of the cake... We had a little trouble with this one!
Action shot!! Nice photog skills, cousin!
And here's my our finished cake! If you can't tell, I'm more of a "no frills" person when it comes to decorating cakes...
And here it is on Saturday night after my mom and aunt Michelle got hold of it!!

Mile-High Devil’s Food Cake (from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne)
Makes an 8-inch 3-layer cake

1 cup unsweetened cocoa, not Dutch processed
1 ¼ cups hot water
3 cups light brown sugar, packed
2 2/3 cups cake flour*
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
9 ounces (2 sticks + 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
3 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup cold water
[*1 cup cake flour is equal to ¾ cup all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch]

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch round cake pans (We baked ours in 9-inch pans, and they almost overflowed. Make sure your 8-inch pans are tall!). Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper and grease the paper as well.
Place the cocoa in a medium bowl and add the hot water. Whisk until smooth and let it cool to room temperature. (To speed this up, whisk the cocoa into ¾ cup hot water. Then add ½ cup cold water to cool it down.)
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low blend to combine. Add the butter and the dissolved cocoa. Then raise the mixer to medium speed and beat for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and cold water until combined. Add this liquid to the batter in three additions scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Divide the batter among the three pans.
Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a cakes tester inserted into the almost comes out clean. (Our 9-inch cakes were done at 25 minutes.) There should be a few crumbs attached still. Cool the cakes in the pans for 15 minutes. Then invert and remove parchment paper and cool completely on a wire rack.

Brown Sugar Buttercream
5 egg whites
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
¼ cup water (We omitted this)
1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (We reduced this to 2 ½ sticks)

(We made our buttercream using the Swiss meringue method-- Whisk the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for 6-8 minutes, or until mixture is fluffy and cool to the touch. Switch to the paddle attachment. On medium speed, add butter a few tablespoons at a time. When all the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture becomes very thick and smooth, about 3 minutes.)
Place all the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer; set aside.
In a heavy medium saucepan combine the sugar and water. Cook over medium heat stirring to dissolve the sugar. Then bring to a boil without stirring and cook until the syrup reaches 238 degrees F on a candy thermometer.
Begin beating the egg whites on medium low speed. Slowly pour in the syrup making sure not to hit the beater. Increase the mixer speed to medium high and beat until the meringue has cooled to body temperature.
With the mixer on med-low add 1-2 tablespoons of butter at a time. When all the butter has been added increase the mixer’s speed to medium and beat until the mixture looks curdled or separated. Continue to beat until the icing comes together again looking like soft smooth whipped butter.

Assembling the cake:
Place one layer flat side down and cover it with 2/3 cup of the frosting. (We used ½ cup frosting between each layer. We had just enough leftover to frost the top and sides.) Top with second layer and repeat process. Top with third layer and frost the sides of the cake.