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!