Heaven and Hell Cake

By francesn

Ingredients

• FOR THE GANACHE:
• 2 lbs. milk chocolate, such as Valrhona, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 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
• FOR THE DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE:
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour, plus more for pan
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 cup coffee
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• FOR THE PEANUT BUTTER MOUSSE:
• 1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 cups smooth peanut butter, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Details

Servings 10
Preparation time 50mins
Cooking time 620mins
Adapted from saveur.com

Preparation

Step 1

Dallas chef Stephan Pyles's rich, multilayered dessert of angel food and devil's food cake, peanut butter mousse, and milk chocolate ganache should be frozen before icing is added and refrigerated before it's sliced.

1. Make the ganache: 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.

2. Make the angel food cake: 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.

3. Make the devil's food cake: 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.

4. Make the peanut butter mousse: 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.

5. 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.

I made this cake yesterday for a friend's dinner party and it was incredible. Everyone agreed that it was probably one of the best cakes they had ever eaten. Who doesn't like chocolate, angel food and peanut butter and putting them in one cake is genius. It was a lot of work, but was totally worth the effort. In the future when I make this cake again, it will be a much smaller version as it is a very large cake that is too rich to have much more than a small piece. I give this cake five stars! Cheers!

Phenomenal. I was apprehensive, but this is actually quite easy to make.

I wouldn't mess to much with trying to change this recipe. It is in my 1998 copy of his second cookbook. My experience with his cooking is that these recipes have been tried and re-tried to perfection. That said I like the addition of the coulis. He originally just drizzled some raspberry sauce across the plate.

Please let us know if subbing in butter makes it more to your liking than the original.

made this cake for a work party, HUGE hit, took 3 trips to the grocery store and five hours to make, but definitely worth every minute of it. This is a whole new thing for me, I usually stick to fruity lighter desserts and never mess with cake, but I'm so glad I tried this, it is the talk of the office. It appears that'll I'll be famous around there for years!

AWESOME!! It is beautiful and delicious. Made my ganache with dark chocolate instead. MAKE THIS CAKE if you are intersted in a beautiful dessert that everyone seems to like!

Addendum to my earlier review... I left the sugar out of the peanut butter mousse, which was fine because the rest of the cake is pretty sweet. I made the cake layers the day before, so they were nice and op for assembly. Also- keep this cake chilled until you are ready to serve it...otherwise it will fall apart at room temp. Really delicious though!

Made this cake for a party last night, and everyone raved about it! I used dark chocolate for the ganache, and added crushed peanuts around the outside. I will definitely make this again!

Absolutely wonderful cake! It is the perfect combination of flavors. I used a raspberry balsamic glaze that gave the chocolate a run for the money. Makes my salivary glands tingle. This will be one of my family's favorites for a long time. Thanks!

Great cake! The angel and devil food cakes are very moist and would be delicious on their own as well. My only suggestion would be to use less peanut butter mousse, as it overpowers the delicate almond flavor of the angel food, which is easily my favorite component of the entire cake! Overall it takes long but is fairly simple to make. The only problem I ran into was using ground coffee when you are supposed to use a cup of actual liquid coffee...oops. Be prepared with extra ingredients as such mistakes are somewhat inevitable for such a tedious cake.

Great name for a cake that everyone enjoyed. It's very rich so my group ate small slivers and we had lots of leftovers which kept well. The filling is as rich as peanut butter cheesecake. I wasn't able to locate a good milk chocolate in my rural area, so used semi sweet and only put it on top; was good contrast with the sweet filling. it really doesn't take long to make, even though the printed recipe is long. Going to be a staple treat for friends going through a break-up.

Don't let all the layers scare you. It was easy to make and it's awesome. I totally impressed my family this weekend.

Could I make this cake 2 days in advance and keep in the refrigerator? I'd like to make it for a family meal, but would like to have it out of the way before the visitors arrive.

Adbhill - did you make it two days in advance? I also want to do that and wonder if it will still be tasty on day three..?