Based on legend (a.okay.a. the Web), Brooklyn Blackout Cake was created by Ebinger’s bakery, a Flatbush-based storefront that after had outposts throughout New York’s boroughs, however finally shuttered in 1972. Comprising three layers of very moist, tender satan’s meals cake sandwiching a lush milk chocolate pudding and enrobed in a darkish chocolate ganache-style frosting, Ebinger’s first referred to as the dessert merely “chocolate fudge cake.” Throughout World Battle II, when the army started conducting managed energy outages alongside the Brooklyn waterfront, in order that battleships might depart the Brooklyn Navy Yard undetected, a brand new title took maintain. Notifications for these “blackout drills” had been posted everywhere in the borough—shortly thereafter, the fudgy dark-crumbed cake obtained its new moniker.
When the bakery closed, Ebinger’s authentic Brooklyn Blackout Cake recipe disappeared too. I wasn’t alive to have tried it, however—as any good chocolate cake fanatic would—I’ve a robust concept of what a cake named blackout ought to style like: wealthy, darkish, moist, decadent…I might hold going, however you realize what I’m speaking about.
As a result of assembling this cake is a bit of time-consuming, I needed to make the sponge as simple as attainable. You don’t want a stand mixer—or another equipment. It’s only one bowl, dump, stir, and bake. My recipe begins with a easy chocolate cake enriched with Dutch-process cocoa powder and darkish brown sugar (okay, so that you’ll wish to sift the dry elements since Dutch cocoa may be notoriously lumpy). It additionally has bitter cream for richness—and to raise the chocolate taste with its tang.
The pudding filling is my favourite a part of the recipe. It tastes like a richer, extra chocolaty model of the pudding cups you may’ve present in your lunchbox as a child. I’d make it as a stand-alone dessert anytime I want a fast chocolate repair. As a result of the cake and pudding are fairly candy, I saved the frosting darkish and moody. All you do is soften chocolate, stir in some cream, and let it thicken because it cools to room temperature. A dollop of bitter cream provides simply sufficient brightness for stability, whereas golden syrup offers the frosting a shiny sheen. The syrup, a key element of Anzac biscuits, may be onerous to seek out in American grocery shops; swap it out for darkish corn syrup in the event you should.
One other necessary element of Brooklyn Blackout Cake is its garnish. You’ll bake the cake in two layers, then break up every in half. Three of these layers are stacked with the pudding, however the fourth is crumbled and pressed into the perimeters of the cake for an arresting presentation that makes the dessert instantly identifiable. Placing the cake collectively could be a little messy: The pudding will smoosh out of the perimeters in the event you press down too onerous or if it isn’t adequately chilled. However that’s the genius of the crumb coating. As soon as assembled, it’ll disguise any and all flaws and nobody will ever know what a loopy, oozy mess your bare cake regarded like.
