If angel food cake is the gentle and soft dessert you bake for ladies’ luncheons and children’s teas, then its opposite – the devil’s food cake – seems the right dessert for every other occasion. For naughty devil’s food is built on deep chocolate flavors and has a big coarse crumb. Nothing for the timid! Slather it with a frosting of more deep chocolate, milder white chocolate, caramel or, my favorite, peanut butter. And the only thing more delicious than a devil’s food cake is another slice of devil’s food cake.

Fortunately for cake doctoring, it’s easy to improvise and improve on a devil’s food cake mix. Add up to 3 tbs unsweetened cocoa powder for a more decided chocolate punch. Or do the trick with a (1 oz) square of unsweetened chocolate melted with ½ cup boiling water. You can also add a tbs of instant coffee powder for an extra kick, especially if you are frosting the cake with a sweet, fluffy, mocha-infused buttercream frosting. But you absolutely MUST add buttermilk to this cake. It assures you a moist cake and compensates for your addition of cocoa, which can dry out the cake batter. Plus, the acidity in buttermilk naturally compliments chocolate.

There you have it. A naughty but delicious chocolate cake worthy of one slice, two, even three. So sell your soul to the devil.