The Devil 's food cake is an old fashioned chocolate cake made of chocolate or cocoa and baking powder . Devil 's food cake is generally more moist and airy than other chocolate cakes , and often uses cocoa as opposed to chocolate for the flavor as well as coffee . The lack of melted chocolate and the addition of coffee is typically what distinguishes a ` devil 's food cake ' from a chocolate cake , though some recipes call for all , resulting in an even richer chocolate flavor .