WORD PLAY | FOOD
Sinful Pleasures
And a morsel about devil’s food and deviled eggs
I do have some sinful pleasures.
I’m definitely going to hell in handbasket.
Can you guess what one of them might be?
It’s a decadent chocolate covered donut with a hole in the middle.
The hole means less calories, right?
Then today I accidentally brought home a box of fresh devil’s food chocolate covered donuts.
One bite showed my mistake. The devil’s food chocolate covered donut is not the same as chocolate coated. The difference is the devil’s food has chocolate cake instead of my usual vanilla.
I noticed the difference immediately —somehow it was sweeter, or something I can’t quite explain. Tasted even more decadent. For me, it was too sweet and I preferred the chocolate coated vanilla cake instead.
But it bent my mind. How did we come up with the term, devil’s food?
Not to mention deviled eggs.
Researching the etymology or origin of words and terminology can be
quite intriguing.
Devil’s Food Cake
- There is speculation about the origins of the term, devil’s food cake. Some believe it was the obvious counterpart to angel’s food cake, made with beaten egg whites, with its light and airy vanilla texture.
- Devil’s food cake is even denser and richer than regular chocolate cake, making it even more sinful, decadent, indulgent. Ah, and therein
lies the correlation to being the food of the devil.
Deviled Eggs
- Finally, what are deviled eggs and how did they get their name? Some people actually think these tasty halved hard-boiled eggs with a spicy filling of hot condiments, ingredients like mustard, paprika or cayenne pepper, make a delicious heavenly appetizer.
- The deviled part actually refers to the hot seasonings with a little a kick or heat. Remarkably, I had never tasted one until recently.
Grace notes: Have you ever tasted deviled eggs or devil’s food cake?
Beyond that, if you could choose anything at all, what food would be your sinful pleasure?
Thank you, Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and The Brain is a Noodle for caring about things so dear to my heart — like the discussion of food.
© Connie Song 2024. All Rights Reserved.
