This week, we discussed that we hadn’t eaten any chocolate cake for ages, so when I discovered Brooklyn blackout cake, I knew it was the next one for me to give a try.
The story goes that the blackout cake was invented in Brooklyn during the blackouts of the 2nd World War by local bakers, Ebinger’s. It consists of layers of chocolate cake, sandwiched together with chocolate custard or pudding and topped with chocolate cake crumbs.
At first glance, it appears to be a difficult cake to produce, but it isn’t. Just tackle it in stages and you’ll see how easy… and delicious it is.
I’ve said in previous recipe posts that it can be difficult to get hold of buttermilk. However, a simple solution to this is add the juice of half a lemon to 130ml of full-fat milk, stir and set aside for 5 minutes. Ta dah… home-made buttermilk! The addition of buttermilk stops this chocolate cake from being too sweet and cloying.
I usually use buttercream between the layers of cake, but this chocolate custard was an eye opener; it spread really well and tastes superb.
This is the first time that I’ve covered a cake in crumbs; again, what a revelation! It gives the cake a different and unusual texture.
The cake is sweet, without being too sweet; moist and gooey and, from other people’s reviews, tastes even better when eaten the following day.
This is definitely a recipe to be repeated again & again.
Click here to save the Brooklyn blackout cake recipe to Pinterest
Brooklyn blackout cake
Ingredients
For the custard filling and topping
- 250 g/9oz golden caster sugar
- 500 ml/¾pt full-fat milk
- 140 g/5oz dark chocolate broken up into pieces
- 50 g/1¾oz cornflour
- 2 tsp espresso powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
For the cake
- 140 g/5oz unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
- 100 ml/3½fl oz vegetable oil
- 140 g/5oz buttermilk or 130ml full-fat milk with the juice of ½ a lemon stirred in
- 100 ml/3½fl oz coffee made with 1 tsp espresso powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g/9oz plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 50 g/1¾oz cocoa powder
- Pinch of salt
- 250 g/9oz light muscovado sugar
Instructions
For the custard (This needs to be prepared first as it needs to chill completely)
- Put all the ingredients, except the vanilla, into a large saucepan and bring it gently to the boil, whisking all the time, until the chocolate has melted and you have a silky, thick custard
- Stir in the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt, then scrape the custard into a wide, shallow bowl. Cover the surface with cling film, cool, then chill for at least 3 hours or until cold and set
For the cake
- Preheat the oven to 175ºC/175ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease & line the bases of 2 x 20cm round cake tins with parchment paper
- Melt the butter in a pan or in the microwave
- Once melted, beat in the vegetable oil, buttermilk, espresso powder and eggs
- Over a large mixing bowl, sieve all the dry ingredients (except the muscovado sugar) together
- Stir in the muscovado sugar, squashing any large lumps with the back of a spoon/spatula
- Pour over the wet ingredients and combine until the batter is smooth
- Divide the batter equally between the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 mins until risen and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean
- Cool for 10 minutes in the tins, then remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely, parchment-side down
- Remove the parchment linings from the cakes. If the cakes are domed, trim them flat
- Cut each cake in half horizontally using a large serrated knife
- Put your least successful layer and any trimmings into a processor and pulse it to crumbs (I simply cut it into pieces and rubbed them together using my fingertips). Tip the crumbs into a large bowl
- Sit one layer on a cake plate and spread it with a quarter of the custard
- Sandwich the next layer on top, add another quarter of the custard
- Top with the final layer of cake
- Spoon the remaining custard on top of the cake, spreading it around the top and down the sides until smooth
- Chill for 15 minutes to firm up the custard again
- Hold the cake over the bowl containing the crumbs, then sprinkle and gently press a layer of crumbs all over the cake. Brush any excess from the plate. You’ll have some crumbs left
- Chill for at least 2 hours before serving
The cake can be made up to 2 days ahead; it gets fudgier and more enticing the longer you leave it!