Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Once I first began researching Brooklyn blackout cake, I did what felt like the one affordable factor to do: I dragged two very affected person mates on a self-guided blackout cake tour throughout New York. We crisscrossed neighborhoods on a crisp early winter day, ducking out and in of bakeries, taking detailed notes, snapping pictures, and tasting slice after slice, making an attempt to pin down what truly qualifies as a Brooklyn blackout cake. Having lived in Brooklyn for a number of years, I would naturally heard of the cake and seen its identify round, however I would by no means truly had the traditional model—solely a doughnut impressed by it.

Brooklyn blackout cake is a layered chocolate cake stuffed and coated with chocolate pudding relatively than buttercream or ganache, then completed with a beneficiant coating of chocolate cake crumbs pressed onto the edges and prime. The dessert is very darkish, its crumb so saturated that it seems almost black as soon as assembled. The pudding softens the layers because it settles into the cake, whereas a crumb coating provides a dry, sandy distinction that offsets the cake’s delicate inside and offers it a intentionally unfinished look.

My recipe beneath is an interpretation that leans into the cake’s defining traits. It prioritizes deep chocolate taste, pudding in abundance, and a delicate texture meant to be loved shortly after it is made—here is how I received there.

The Origins of Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Brooklyn blackout cake was created by Ebinger Baking Firm, a Brooklyn bakery based within the Flatbush neighborhood in 1898 that later grew into one of many borough’s most influential establishments earlier than closing in 1972. By the mid-Twentieth century, Ebinger’s operated dozens of storefronts throughout Brooklyn and was identified for its German-style pastries and layer truffles.

The cake first appeared within the early Twentieth century below the identify “chocolate fudge cake,” nevertheless it later grew to become often known as blackout cake throughout World Warfare II, based on a 2011 article by meals author Louise McCready printed in Edible Brooklyn. The identify refers to blackout drills carried out by the Civilian Protection Corps, throughout which metropolis lights had been extinguished and home windows lined when naval ships departed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

What distinguished the blackout cake from different chocolate layer truffles of its period was its building. Somewhat than being stuffed and frosted with buttercream or icing, the cake was each stuffed and coated with chocolate pudding, then completed with a layer of chocolate cake crumbs. That pudding-based design gave the cake a notably delicate texture and a brief shelf life: Pudding introduces moisture with out the stabilizing sugar and fats construction of buttercream, which means the cake rapidly absorbs liquid, softens, and begins to lose definition. For that purpose, it is a cake meant to be sliced and eaten not lengthy after it’s made.

Regardless of the bakery’s closure in ’72, blackout cake endured. Its defining components—darkish chocolate layers, pudding filling, and crumb coating—remained recognizable whilst interpretations multiplied, preserving the cake’s id lengthy after Ebinger’s storefronts disappeared.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake As we speak

The concept of blackout cake has grow to be so embedded in New York dessert tradition that it extends past layer truffles, together with the beloved Brooklyn Blackout Doughnut at Doughnut Plant—a chocolate cake doughnut stuffed with chocolate pudding, glazed with chocolate, and completed with cake crumbs.

My casual tour turned up wildly totally different interpretations below the identical identify. In some circumstances, the cake has drifted removed from its pudding-soaked origins, evolving into tall, cleanly sliced layer truffles with clean finishes and agency fillings that maintain their form.

Two of the variations that stood out to me probably the most had been, considerably surprisingly, in Manhattan. The blackout cake at Hani’s bakery within the East Village was a transparent departure from the denser, virtually fudgey variations of the cake. Layered with silky ganache relatively than pudding, it stood tall and sliced cleanly, with a refined construction and a young, even crumb. It was much less a duplicate of the delicate, pudding-filled traditional and extra a reinterpretation.

The model that got here closest to what I imagined a Brooklyn blackout cake to be, based mostly on oral historical past and outline, was at Claude Bakery within the West Village. Its crumb was dense and deeply chocolatey, unable to carry itself upright beneath thick layers of pudding that visibly seeped out from between the cake layers. The cake had a homey, virtually box-cake enchantment—unabashedly wealthy and unpolished. It could have lacked the refinement of Hani’s model, nevertheless it felt nearer in spirit to a conventional blackout cake. 

Taken collectively, these variations made it clear that there isn’t any single method blackout cake is made right now. However the truffles that really feel most true to its origins share a standard intuition: They prioritize depth of chocolate taste, favor a very moist cake, and deal with pudding as a defining characteristic relatively than an ornamental one. That understanding formed my strategy.

The Cake Layers

The cake layers in a Brooklyn blackout cake have a tough job. They should be delicate sufficient to soak up pudding with out feeling dry, however sturdy sufficient to be stacked and sliced with out collapsing. On the identical time, they should ship an intense chocolate taste and a darkish sufficient coloration to reside as much as the cake’s identify, relatively than counting on the filling to do all of the work.

To realize that stability, Dutch-process cocoa is essential right here as a result of it is darker in coloration and smoother in taste than pure cocoa, serving to push the cake towards the near-black look that is echoed in its identify. Blooming the cocoa with scorching water intensifies its chocolate taste by releasing fragrant compounds that keep muted in dry cocoa, making certain the cake tastes wealthy and chocolate-forward by itself.

Darkish brown sugar additional reinforces that taste profile. Its molasses content material deepens the chocolate and provides the darkish, rounded notes related to a blackout cake. In my testing, I discovered that utilizing all brown sugar added an excessive amount of moisture to the cake, making the layers overly delicate after baking and cooling. To stability that, my recipe requires a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar. With out molasses, granulated sugar brings sweetness with out further water, permitting the cake to set extra cleanly because it bakes. The mix produces layers which are flavorful and darkish, but agency sufficient to carry their form and slice neatly as soon as cooled.

To dial within the texture, I take advantage of oil as an alternative of butter within the cake batter as a result of it stays liquid because the cake cools, protecting the crumb moist even after chilling. Butter-based truffles are likely to agency up as they cool, which works towards the delicate, pudding-soaked texture that defines blackout cake.

Lastly, the blending methodology additionally controls construction. Regardless of the ultimate cake’s showstopping look, it comes along with nothing greater than a whisk—no stand mixer or hand mixer required. As a result of the cake depends on oil relatively than creamed butter, there isn’t any have to aerate the batter. Minimal mixing limits air incorporation, producing a dense, even crumb that helps the pudding.

The Chocolate Pudding Layers

I’ve by no means been particularly keen on buttercream, which is why Brooklyn blackout cake—with its pudding layers—is my splendid chocolate cake. As a result of the pudding acts as each filling and frosting, it must be thick sufficient to carry between layers whereas nonetheless spreading cleanly over the surface of the cake.

Cocoa powder performs an essential structural position within the pudding. Together with cornstarch, it helps thicken the combination because it cooks, giving the pudding sufficient physique to perform as frosting as soon as chilled. Cooking the pudding till it gently bubbles ensures the cornstarch is totally activated, and cooking the cornstarch lengthy sufficient prevents a uncooked or chalky texture.

Unsweetened chocolate is added after cooking to deepen the pudding’s taste. Utilizing each cocoa powder and stable chocolate creates a pudding that is agency but clean, with a darkish, rounded chocolate taste that matches the cake.

Assembling the Cake

As soon as cooled, the cake layers are cut up horizontally to create 4 even layers. One layer is finely crumbled and put aside, whereas the remaining layers are stacked with beneficiant spreads of pudding in between, permitting the pudding to settle naturally into the cake.

The pudding is then smoothed excessive and sides, totally enrobing the cake, earlier than the reserved crumbs are pressed on to type a darkish, textural mantle. Greater than ornamental, the crumb coating helps anchor the pudding in place. A quick chill companies the pudding simply sufficient for clear slices, after which the cake is finest served promptly.

An Enduring Legacy

A part of the Brooklyn blackout cake’s magic is that nobody truly is aware of the unique recipe. When Ebinger Baking Firm closed its doorways in 1972, the recipe disappeared with it. What stays as an alternative are descriptions handed down and preferences argued over.

Each fashionable model is, by necessity, an interpretation. My model sits inside that lineage, formed by statement, testing, and a dedication to the traits which have outlined this exemplar of over-the-top chocolate desserts.

Ebinger’s could also be lengthy gone, its recipe successfully entombed, however the Brooklyn blackout cake refuses to be buried. So long as bakers preserve making it, the cake endures, not as a relic, however as a dwelling custom.