Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Every inch of this Brooklyn blackout cake recipe features chocolate. It’s a superiorly rich cake recipe thanks to a thick chocolate pudding filling nestled between layers of moist chocolate cake. To make things even better, the entire dessert gets covered with leftover chocolate cake crumbs glued to the surface by a creamy coating of chocolate frosting. There’s no denying that this intensely chocolatey dessert isn’t for the faint-hearted. So, if chocolate is your love language, you’ve finally met your match.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake Ingredients

• Sugar, cornstarch, salt and milk: These ingredients, particularly the cornstarch and sugar, make the pudding thick and creamy. A pinch of salt helps balance the sweetness from the sugar, while the milk helps give the pudding its luxuriously creamy texture.
• Semisweet chocolate: Slowly melt the chocolate in the sugar cornstarch mixture until it’s creamy. As the mixture sets, it’ll thicken into the appropriate pudding consistency.
• Vanilla extract: A hint of good-quality vanilla extract gives the pudding another layer of warmth and flavor to balance the rich chocolate.
•  All-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt: These form the dry ingredients in the cake batter, which provide structure and help leaven the cake to ensure it rises while baking. A pinch of salt helps balance the sweetness in the dessert.
• Unsalted butter: Melted butter helps bind the wet and dry ingredients together. It also helps form a chocolate mixture that’s added to the dry ingredients.
• Dutch-processed cocoa: Dutch-processed cocoa powder has a less acidic and earthier flavor than natural cocoa powder, which helps add chocolate notes to the cake batter without overpowering it.
• Sugar and brown sugar: Two types of sugar in the cake batter add different levels of sweetness and flavor. Granulated sugar tends to be sweeter than brown sugar, while brown sugar has a deeper molasses undertone.
• Buttermilk, strong brewed coffee and vanilla extract: The combination of these three ingredients adds richness and rounds out the flavors in the cake. Buttermilk brings tanginess that balances the sweetness from the sugars, brewed coffee further intensifies the chocolate and vanilla adds warmth.
• Eggs: Bring the eggs to room temperature before adding them—one at a time—into the batter. The eggs also help bind the ingredients together and add structure to the cake.
• Semisweet chocolate and butter: Hot butter helps melt the semisweet chocolate, creating a spreadable chocolate frosting to top this recipe for Brooklyn blackout cake.
• Hot water, light corn syrup and vanilla extract: Hot water helps loosen the consistency of the frosting even further to ensure it’s easily spreadable, while light corn syrup and vanilla extract add the right amount of sweetness and warmth to the mixture.

Directions

Step 1: Make the pudding

In a small, heavy saucepan, mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Whisk in the milk. Cook and stir it over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce the heat to low; cook and stir for two minutes longer. Stir in the chocolate until melted. Transfer it to a bowl; stir in the vanilla. Cool it slightly, stirring occasionally. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding. Refrigerate it, covered, for two hours or until cold.

Step 2: Prepare the cake batter

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line the bottoms of two greased 8-inch round baking pans with parchment and grease the paper. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the cocoa; cook and stir it until blended. Stir in the sugars. Remove it from heat; stir in the buttermilk, coffee and vanilla. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until blended. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.

Step 3: Bake the cakes

Transfer the batter to prepared pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks; remove the parchment. Cool completely.

Step 4: Make the frosting

For the frosting, melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler or a metal bowl over hot water; stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in the hot water all at once. Whisk in the corn syrup and vanilla. Refrigerate for 25 to 30 minutes or just until spreadable.

Step 5: Assemble the cake

Using a long serrated knife, cut each cake horizontally in half. Place a cake layer on a serving plate and spread with half of the pudding. Repeat the layers. Top with a third cake layer. Spread frosting over the top and sides of the cake.

Step 6: Add the cake crumbs

Crumble the remaining cake layer and sprinkle it over the top and sides of the cake, pressing lightly to adhere. Refrigerate the leftovers.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake Variations

• Use boxed pudding mix: To save time, prepare the pudding filling using boxed chocolate pudding mix rather than making it from scratch.
• Keep the top of the cake crumb-free: For a different presentation, adhere the cake crumbs to the sides while keeping the top crumb-free. You can use an offset spatula to create a swirl design in the frosting on the top of the cake.
• Add a few dollops of sour cream: For a tangier flavor and glossier finish, add a few dollops of sour cream into the frosting, fully emulsifying it into the mixture until untraceable.

How to Store Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Store the cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 7 to 10 days. We don’t recommend storing the cake at room temperature, as it contains perishable ingredients, such as milk in the pudding.

Can you freeze Brooklyn blackout cake?

Although you can store this cake in the freezer for up to eight months, the cold temperatures may impact its texture and consistency once thawed.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake Tips

Why is it called Brooklyn Blackout Cake?

The cake’s name comes from its place of origin, a Brooklyn-based bakery chain named Ebinger’s. It’s believed that the blackout cake Brooklyn style was invented in 1942 during World War II as an ode to when mandatory blackouts were in effect to help protect the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

What is blackout cake made of?

Blackout cake recipes consist of tender layers of chocolate cake filled to the edges with dense chocolate pudding and coated with spreadable chocolate frosting. Then, leftover cake crumbs garnish the top of the frosting.

How do you keep chocolate cake moist?

Once the cake layers have cooled completely, brush them with a coat of simple syrup to keep them even more moist.