Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate SMBC and Vanilla Buttercream Filling

I always look forward to Lucas’ birthday because it’s an excuse for me to make one of my favorite cakes. I use my devil’s food cake recipe for the base layers, then fill it with a rich, dense ~Swedish~ vanilla buttercream (see below for the difference) and decorate it with a silky milk chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.

I like to make this cake rectangular, but you could definitely bake it using cake rounds instead. I divide the batter between 3 (9x6-inch) 1/8 sheet pans, but you can also use 3 (8-inch) rounds. Don’t go any larger than that, as the layers will become too thin.

**I accidentally baked mine in larger baking sheets, so I had to assemble the cake in 6 layers instead of three. Do not do this unless you are prepared for a mess. Because they then become so much thinner, they break very easily. I also much prefer the texture of the thicker layers of cake and buttercream in this recipe.

Tips

• The vanilla buttercream is less of an American buttercream and more of a Swedish buttercream, if you will. It’s much butterier, less airy, and uses raw egg yolks for extra richness. I know not everyone is comfortable eating raw egg yolks, so if that’s the case, you can swap the 2 yolks out for 2 tablespoons of heavy cream.

• Devil’s food cake has a very delicate crumb — make sure not to overbake it, as it can become crumbly and hard to work with. Because of its delicate crumb, I also highly recommend baking in three separate cake pans rather than baking one cake and slicing it (the cake layers are more likely to break).

• For ease, I like to break up cake recipes over 3 days. Day 1: bake the cake layers–store in the cake pans overnight. Day 2: make the SMBC and filling, then assemble and decorate the cake. Day 3: Take it out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving.