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This cake is just a load of chocolate flavor…from the soft cake to the creamy pudding to the light frosting. It’s a fudgy cake because of the pudding, and just heavenly. You won’t stop at one slice…maybe not even at two! So why is it called a Brooklyn blackout cake…apparently it was first created at Ebinger’s bakery in Brooklyn during World War II in recognition of the mandatory blackouts to protect the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Who would’ve thought?
Prep time: 60 mins – Cook time: 45 minutes – Chilling time: 2 hours (or more) – Assembly time: 30 mins
Ingredients:
Cake
- 3 cups flour
- 1 cups sugar
- 1 ½ cups dark (black) cocoa
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk
- 1 cup hot water
- ½ cup oil
- ½ cup hot coffee
Pudding
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoons corn flour
- 1¼ cups heavy cream
- 4 egg yolks, beaten
- 1¼ cups milk
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 120 grams chocolate, chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped chocolate
- ¾ cup yoghurt, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup of dark cocoa
Equipment:
| Measuring cups and spoons |
| 1 large bowl |
| 2 medium bowls |
| Large saucepan |
| Sieve |
| Plastic wrap |
| Scale |
| 2 round 8 inch / 20 cm cake pans, lined with parchment paper or buttered and floured. |
How to…..
Preheat oven to 350F/176 C.
Cake
Mix all the dry ingredients. Then add the wet ingredients and mix with a handheld electric whisk. Pour in equal portions in the 2 pans and bake for 30 mins at 350 F/176 C.
Pudding and Assembly
Whisk cocoa powder and corn flour in a large saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the cream until smooth. Add egg yolks, milk, brown sugar, and salt while you’re whisking over medium heat. Keep it until it boils while whisking occasionally, then reduce heat to low. Continue to cook, whisking, until thick and smooth, 1–2 minutes.
Remove from heat and add chocolate and vanilla, stirring until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Strain through a sieve into a bowl. Don’t forget to strain! Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto surface of hot pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Chill until cold, at least 2 hours if not more.
Remove plastic from chilled pudding and mix it with a spoon until smooth. Spread half of the pudding over the cake layer. Top with another cake layer, cut side down and spread remaining pudding over cake. Top with third cake layer cut side down (leave top bare). Chill cake for a few hours (1- 8 hours).
Frosting
Bring cream and salt to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and stir in chocolate, yoghurt and butter. Stir occasionally, until chocolate and butter are melted and mixture is smooth (it will look like broken chocolate sauce at first, but it will start to thicken). Transfer to bowl. Put it in the fridge to thicken it up.
Take the frosting out of the fridge, and now frost the chilled cake. Start with the sides of the cake using a spatula or knife, and then frost the top
Ps – I decorated the sides of the top of the cake with cake crumbs which I took from one of the cake layers by cutting off the top of the cake layer to make it completely flat and not arched.