History of Devil's Food Cake

Photo from the cookbook called Chocolate Cake by Michele Urvater

Definition of deviled - A term describing food that is dark, rich, chocolate, spicily piquant or stimulating it is "deviled." The term "deviled" for spicy foods dates back to the 18th century. Deviled dishes were popular throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries, especially for seafood dishes. According to the Oxford Companion to Food:

Devil--a culinary term which . . . first appeared as a noun in the 18th century, and then in the early 19th century as a verb meaning to cook something with fiery hot spices or condiments. . . . The term was presumably adopted because of the connection between the devil and the excessive heat in Hell. . . . Boswell, Dr Johnson's biographer, frequently refers to partaking of a dish of "devilled bones" for supper, which suggests an earlier use. . . Deviled dishes were very popular throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries, especially for seafood preparations and some appetizers.

Devil's Food Cake is also know as Red Velvet Cake, Red Devil’s Cake, Waldorf Astoria Cake, and $100 Dollar Cake.
A beautiful mild chocolate flavor cake that is startlingly red. The cake is traditionally complemented with a thick white frosting with different regions of the country using different types of frosting. The cake gets this bright red color from the large amount of red food dye used in the preparation. A light-textured chocolate layer-type cake with a deep reddish brown color. Devils food cake is usually thought of in terms of dark chocolate, but originally it was red. Today cooks, using modern processed cocoa, sometimes add a touch of red food coloring to bring back the authentic color. This cake is particularly popular in New Orleans.

This cake probably goes back in history and existed in the southern states where the cake was originally made from beets and cocoa. 

1902 - Devil's food cake was the favorite dessert of the early 1900s. In 1902, the recipe first appeared  in an American cookbook called Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book by Sarah Tyson Rorer. By 1913, recipes began appearing in cookbooks across America.

1950s - Some people think that this cake originated in the 1950s at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The restaurant archives can’t produce any evidence or records of this, but because this version is so popular, the restaurant likes to take credit for it.

1940s - In the 1940s, a rumor was spread that a customer asked for a copy of the recipe and was given a bill in the amount of  $100. According to the rumor, the angry customer, apparently with revenge in mind, then began circulating the recipe along with her story. As with most urban legends, they seem to have a life of their own, creeping through a society one person at a time.

1970s - In the 1970s, the cakes’ popularity faded when red dye was linked to cancer.