Brooklyn Blackout Cake is a chocolate cake named after the blackout drills of World War II. A bakery called Ebinger's invented it, and over time other bakeries became famous for their own versions. In all cases it consists of a three layer chocolate cake filled with pudding. Some versions use the pudding as the frosting, while others have an extra frosting. My recipe has the frosting. It's a lot of fun, and as a bonus, doesn't require an electric mixer. Plus the frosting is so good! If you have no intention of making this cake, at least try the frosting.
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Moist Cake Hidden Under Crumbs
The first component of Blackout Cake is the chocolate cake itself. The recipe I used is from Rick Martinez and perfect for these times. It's cocoa powder based, has one egg and a yolk, and there's no butter, just oil and sour cream. Plus it's a stir-together cake so you don't even need a mixer. Baking it went well and the layers domed perfectly. You bake it as two layers, slice to make four, and one layer is held back for crumbs. Next time I might try making this in three shallow 8-inch pans and just trimming off the domed tops to use as crumbs.
The Pudding
For the pudding filling, I chose a recipe from Gale Gand, but used only half. It came together without a hitch and tasted great. It's a rather loose pudding, though mine was probably a little looser since I didn't wait for it to cool completely. The fact it calls for water rather than milk and its overall shiny smooth texture makes me think I'd use it again. I imagine its flavor will be different based on whatever brand of Dutch process cocoa powder is used.
Assembling Brooklyn Blackout Cake
In Brooklyn, during World War II, the power would be shut off so that battle ships could leave the naval yard undetected. As I assembled this cake my thought was that it would be easier to hide a battleship than the monstrosity I'd pulled from the freezer. Somehow I managed not to throw the whole thing in the trash, and kept faith in the frosting.
The Frosting
So as mentioned, I assembled the cake, wrapped and froze it. That also meant I came into the frosting making process fresh and not tired from making the other components. But even if I had been, this frosting was maybe the easiest I've ever made. To make the frosting, you just boil together cream and a little corn or golden syrup. You then add chocolate (quality chips worked well), then room temperature butter and sour cream. This mixture sits for an hour and a half and magically becomes smooth and spreadable. This frosting is also from Rick Martinez, who I now think of as a genius. Thank you, Chef!
Very Easy and No Electric Mixer Required
So as mentioned, this cake is easy and you can make it without an electric mixer. I took my time with it-- time for standing, time for cooling, time for assembling, cleaning up crumbs and freezing overnight. If you are good at assembling cakes, you could probably get it done in several hours.
Storing
The drawback to this cake is it needs to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer. For some of us that's actually a bonus. I will say that this went over so well my husband requested to just keep it in the refrigerator for good. I should probably make it again as a six inch. Maybe I'll try the original Ebinger's version.
Recipe
Brooklyn Blackout Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (195 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa (60 grams)
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar (300 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- ¾ cup sour cream (170 grams)
- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ¾ cup hot coffee or water (170 grams)
Pudding
- 1 ¼ cups sugar (250 grams)
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (60 grams)
- ½ tablespoon corn syrup or golden syrup (10 grams
- 1 ¼ cups water plus another ¼ cup
- ¼ cup cornstarch (30 grams)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces (42 grams)
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Frosting
- 1 cup heavy cream (230 grams)
- 3 tablespoons corn syrup golden syrup (60 grams
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 12 oz bittersweet chocolate
- ¾ cup sour cream (170 grams)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or salted butter (28 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease 2 8x2-inch round cake pans, line with parchment, grease again and dust with flour.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl and whisk for at least a minute or until very well combined.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, egg, egg yolk, sour cream, oil, vanilla, and ¾ cup hot coffee (or water) until smooth. Add the dry ingredients and beat by hand with a heavy duty scraper until blended.
- Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack; let cakes cool in pan. Invert onto a plate, then invert again.
Pudding Mixture
- In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder, corn syrup and 1 ¼ cups of water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the remaining ¼ cup of water and the cornstarch. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the cocoa mixture in the saucepan and return the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla.
- Pour into a bowl and whisk for a few minutes to help it cool. Cover with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic against the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool at room temperature for about 20 minutes, then chill until it thickens a bit (45 minutes).
Assembling Cake
- Using a long serrated knife, cut the cake layers in half horizontally. Reserve the worst looking layer for crumbs.
- Place a cake layer on a flat service. If you are planning freezing, you may want to do this on a big sheet of plastic wrap. Spread with half of the cooled pudding. Stack on a second layer of cake, remaining pudding, then the final layer of cake. Wrap the cake tightly in plastic and freeze overnight. If you don't want to freeze overnight, just wrap and chill for a few hours.
- On assembly day, use the frosting below to cover sides and top. Crumble the reserved caked layer and put crumbs all over the top and sides. Chill for a few hours if you can to let everything meld.
Frosting - Allow 2 hours for this. I only needed about ⅔ of the recipe
- Bring cream, syrup, and salt to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Remove from heat and add chocolate. Stir until the chocolate melts, then stir in the room temperature sour cream, and butter. You can add vanilla if you like.
- Transfer to a medium bowl. Let frosting sit at room temperature for about 1 ½ hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so. Stir to combine cooler outer edges with warmer center, then chill another 5 minutes if you need to (I did not). Use to frost the cake.
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