Devil's Food Cake and French Buttercream

Tools of the trade and ingredients for buttercream

Devil's Food Cake ready for frosting

The hot, humid weather is making my cake weep :-(

To correct the damage i put the buttercream in an ice bath

The finished product

I dont know if it's the hot and humid summer weather here or the kind of butter I used etc. but my French buttercream was weeping like crazy. I tried putting the cake in the chiller and the icing in an ice bath but i wasn't that satisfied with how my cake came out. It's a good thing it tastes great :-)

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE
Cake Flour 500 grams
Granulated Sugar 667 grams
Cocoa Powder 85 grams
Skim Milk 333 ml
Salt 10 grams
Vanilla Extract 7 grams
Baking Powder 15 grams
Skim Milk 250 ml
Baking Soda 10 grams
Eggs 6 pieces
Butter 290 grams

Sift flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Add the butter (cut into small pieces) and mix at low speed with paddle attachment of Kitchenaid mixer for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape down sides with rubber spatula and mix again. Sift cocoa powder with sugar and add part of the milk (333 ml). Add to batter and blend at low speed for 3 minutes. Combine vanilla extract, milk (250 ml) and eggs. Add mixture to batter in 3 parts. Scrape after each addition. Continue mixing 5 minutes. Mixture will be quite liquid. Transfer to a greased and lined 9" cake pan and bake in a preheated 350 degrees F oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Take out of oven and cool before frosting.

FRENCH BUTTERCREAM
Granulated Sugar 1 kilo
Water 250 ml
Egg Yolks 9 pieces
Butter 2.5 bars
Vanilla 7.5 ml

Combine water and sugar and bring to a boil while stirring to dissolve sugar. Continue to boil until temperature on candy thermometer reaches 240 degrees F. While syrup is boiling, beat yolks in KItchenaid mixer with whip attachment until thick and light. As soon as syrup reaches 240 degrees F pour very slowly into beaten egg yolks while mixer is running at second speed. Continue to beat until mixture is completely cool and yolks are very thick and light. While mixer is running, add butter a little at a time, beat in vanilla. Refrigerate and use as desired.