Heaven & Hell Cake
~ Mary ~
Oh YEAH – Devil’s Food, Angel Food, Peanut Butter Mousse and Lindt Milk Chocolate Ganache! I accidentally stumbled on this Heaven & Hell cake in the recent issue of SAVEUR– there was a little blurb about on-line content and additional recipes.
I clicked and searched and found it – no photo – just a recipe and it looked good! My first choice had been a Tres Leches cake, but those don’t stack and as you have seen here, here, and here ~ I LOVE the tiered cakes! John & I are always a little leary when restaurants make their recipes available to the public in human sizes. Most times they either forget an ingredient or a step or the quantities aren’t manageable at all. Not so here!
Since I had no photo to go by (although there is one there now) I cut the Peanut Butter Mousse in half because it just sounded like way too much! I’m glad I did, but when I did an image search I saw that it actually is the correct amount. 4 CUPS of peanut butter! WOW! One other little quirk is the Devil’s food cake – I made it twice – because cutting the layer in half just made it too short. Angel food was perfect I cut the ganache by 25% and it worked perfect. I also really loved the straight forward no fuss directions provided!
Down below is how I made it.
You can see all of our cakes by clicking HERE
Heaven and Hell Cake
FOR THE GANACHE:
1 3/4 lbs. milk chocolate, such as Valrhona, chopped
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
Place the chocolate in a medium-size bowl. Bring cream to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan; pour cream over the chocolate and let sit to melt for 5 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, combine the chocolate and cream. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to let rest for 4 hours.
FOR THE ANGEL FOOD CAKE:
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups egg whites
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. almond extract
Heat oven to 325°.
Line bottom of a 10″ round cake pan with ungreased parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, sift together confectioners’ sugar and flour; set flour mixture aside. In a large bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt with a handheld mixer on low speed until frothy. Increase mixer speed to medium, sprinkle in sugar, vanilla, and almond extract, and beat until stiff peaks form.
Sprinkle half of the confectioners’ sugar–flour mixture over egg whites; using a rubber spatula, fold until just combined.
Repeat with remaining flour mixture.
Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake until top of cake springs back when touched, 45–50 minutes. Transfer cake to a rack and let cool.
FOR THE DEVIL’S FOOD CAKE: this is 1 1/2 times the original
3/4 cup vegetable shortening, plus more for pan
1 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pan
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups coffee
3/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
Heat oven to 350°.
Grease a 10″ round cake pan with shortening and dust with flour to coat; shake out excess flour and set pan aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder; set flour mixture aside.
In another medium bowl, whisk the coffee and cocoa powder until smooth; set coffee mixture aside.
In a large bowl, beat the shortening, sugar, vanilla, and eggs with a handheld mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 minutes. Alternately add the flour mixture and the coffee mixture to the bowl in 3 stages, beating to combine after each addition.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean, 30–35 minutes; transfer to a rack and let cool completely.
FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE:
1 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 cup heavy cream
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, peanut butter, and confectioners’ sugar with a handheld mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Put cream into a large bowl and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture; set mousse aside in the refrigerator.
Assemble the cake: Using a serrated-blade knife, slice each cake horizontally into 2 layers. Place 1 layer of the devil’s food cake on a cake stand and spread 1/3 of the peanut butter mousse over the top with a butter knife. Top mousse with a layer of the angel food cake and spread
with half of the remaining mousse. Repeat with the remaining devil’s food
cake, mousse, and angel food cake. Wrap cake in plastic wrap and freeze for 2 hours. Stir ganache until smooth and spread evenly over the top and sides of the cake with a butter knife. Refrigerate the cake for 2 hours before slicing.
SERVES 10 – 12
Oh boy, that looks good!!!
I love the devil monster!
I do believe I am going to make this for Sean Patrick’s first birthday. I’ll give him just a crumb, and the adults will consume the rest!
WOW!!!! What an awesome idea, name and taste I can imagine!!! Looks sooooo good!
Oh, my!! That not only looks impressive, but sounds delicious as well!
Oh my!!! This looks insanely delicious. I need an excuse to make it, like RIGHT NOW!
I rarely eat desserts, or even chocolate, really (don’t have a sweet tooth), but this one spoke to me. WOW! Well done!
I live in Dallas (where Stephan Pyles’ restaurant is) and in culinary school we spent a week studying and cooking his cuisine. So I have made this cake, it is SO good. Yours looks delicious! Very beautiful!
Oh my goodness, does that look wonderful…
I can’t believe I ate so much of this cake. It was so rich and totally memorable!
Your cake is beautiful! I am adding this to my “Gotta try it someday list”.
Wow! I better not choke on my own salivation. This looks like one show stopper of a cake, especially once all of the layers are revealed. Nothing wrong with combining chocolate and peanut butter 🙂
Holy cow! That looks dangerous! 🙂
I’ve had Pyles cookbook for over a year and that’s the one recipe I’ve wanted to make. He was at the IACP convention a couple years ago and I wanted to see him but didn’t make the event. His recipes are great. If you don’t have that book with the Heaven and Hell Cake pick it up. It’s great.
I’m making this now, it looks awesome!
Can I ask though, what are the white pieces on the outside?
White chocolate – I had melted with a little cream and they were too soft (too much fat) to make ribbons – so I just broke them up to make a mosaic – they stuck to the cake great.
~ Mary
Hi Honey!
What a beautiful recipe, thank you for sharing!
I love it so much I’ve included it the “Top 21 Chocolate Cake recipe posts on twitter”
Keep up the good work!
Love,
Bridge
What a lovely cake – the gargoyle is the perfect prop!
Oh, holy crap that looks so freaking awesome! Michelle, I have to agree with your post. I ABSOLUTELY NEED TO MAKE AN EXCUSE TO BAKE THIS CAKE THIS VERY SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello thank you so much for the recipe. And just a comment. The tres leches cake can be stacked I always made the tres leches cake that way like in Mexico.
I’ve made this cake before as well. I can’t recall the chef who created it but I have his cookbook. He does a lot of southwest cooking. It’s a great cake but does require a few steps. Yours turned out beautiful!
Looking forward to making this cake. What’s are the white pieces on the ganache made of?
Thanks,
White chocolate – I had melted with a little cream and they were too soft (too much fat) to make ribbons – so I just broke them up to make a mosaic – they stuck to the cake great.
~ Mary