Chocolate Blackout Cake

Jeff the Chef
"Chocolate Blackout Cake," from Make It Like a Man!

Unusual, attractive design. Deeply rich and moist without being outright fudgy. A whole world of chocolate in every bite. Will momentarily make you forget you’re in lock-down.

This recipe is a slight modification of one from America’s Test Kitchen[1].

Makes one 8-inch, 3-layer cake, serving 10-12

For the pudding:

2 cups half-n-half
1 cup milk
8¾ oz. (1¼ cups) sugar
1 oz. (¼ cup) cornstarch
½ tsp salt
6 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tsp vanilla

  1. Whisk the half-n-half, milk, sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Add the chocolate and, over medium heat, whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 8 minutes. Off heat.

It will seem for the longest time that not much is happening. Even after the chocolate melts, the mixture won’t look anything like a pudding. Beware and be patient! Eventually, all in the space of seconds, it will thicken, turn beautifully glossy and gloriously pudding-like, and begin producing massive bubbles. Stop cooking immediately.

  1. Stir in the vanilla, and transfer the pudding to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, placing the wrap right against the surface of the pudding. Place in the refrigerator overnight.
"Chocolate Blackout Cake," from Make It Like a Man!

For the cake:

7½ oz. (1½ cups) AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
4 oz. (8 Tbs, or 1 stick) butter
2¼ oz. (¾ cup) Dutch-process cocoa
½ cup Chocolat Royal liqueur
½ cup water
1 cup buttermilk
7 oz. (1 cup, packed) brown sugar
7 oz. (1 cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

  1. Butter two 8-inch cake pans, line their bottoms with parchment, butter the parchment, and flour the pans. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
  2. Mix the flour, powder, soda, and salt on speed 2 (of 10) for 30 seconds. Transfer to a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa and stir continuously for 1 minute. Off heat.
  4. Add the liqueur, water, buttermilk, and both sugars. Whisk until the sugars are dissolved.

You can substitute coffee for the liqueur, and if you do, you should/could also swap out coffee for the water.

  1. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
  2. Add the flour mixture in three additions, mixing just until blended each time, on speed 2. Use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl and incorporate any remaining, unmixed flour.
  3. Divide the batter between the pans, 1½ lbs. of batter per pan.
  4. Bake until cakes test clean, about 32 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn them out onto the rack (and peel away the parchment) to cool completely, about 2 hours.

Assembly:

  1. Split each layer in half horizontally.
  2. Place one layer on a cake plate, and top it with 1 cup of the pudding, spreading the pudding right to the sides. Repeat with a second layer and another cup of pudding. Place a third layer on top. Spread a thick layer of pudding around the sides of the layers, and spread remaining pudding over the top.
  3. Crumble the remaining cake layer into small pieces. Coat the entire cake in these crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
"Chocolate Blackout Cake," from Make It Like a Man!

I started crumbling the cake by hand, gingerly, but then found it helpful to finish by cutting through the crumbs with a knife to even them out. The average crumb should be pea-sized.

Covering the sides of the cake is a messy, reiterative process. As many crumbs that you coax into adhering to the cake, more will fall to the work surface. You’ll need to scoop them up and continue to apply them to the cake. Scooping up fallen crumbs can be tricky, because they’re delicate. I found it easiest to gather them up with a bench scraper and the dull side of a chef’s knife. It’s helpful to do this on a very large work surface, so that you don’t wind up with crumbs on the floor.

This is a great from-scratch cake for a home baker. It’s leaps and bounds better-tasting than any box cake, but it’s not hard to make. The decoration takes a bit of patience, but it’s not difficult. It’s delicious, but unfussy – a “comfort food” cake, for sure. Moreover, on day two, this cake is indistinguishable from day one, which makes it great for making ahead.

Social Learning:

Years ago, when I started learning to bake bread, someone hipped me to the idea of using a good-sized painter’s brush to clean up flour from a dry countertop. Obviously, it should be a brush that’s never been anywhere near paint. I bought one, and keep it dedicated for this purpose. It’s also perfect for sweeping fallen cake crumbs onto a bench scraper.

[1] The Editors at America’s Test Kitchen. 2018. “Chocolate Blackout Cake.” In The Perfect Cake, 230. Boston, MA: Penguin Random House.

"Chocolate Blackout Cake," from Make It Like a Man!
Chocolate Blackout Cake

Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! Thank you, Kesor. This cake was solicited by my husband, for his birthday, and it was perfect for that. It wasn’t solicited in any commercial way, however, nor was it written in exchange for anything.

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37 thoughts on “Chocolate Blackout Cake”

  3. Well happy birthday to your husband! This cake looks fan-freakin-tastic, Jeff. I love the way it’s decorated, although I must admit that it does seem a bit like a pain in the arse with the crumbling and all. Nevertheless, I’d still eat the heck out of this cake! Do you deliver? To a predetermined non-contact location? If so, I’d like a slice to arrive this evening please.
    David @ Spiced recently posted…20 Must Have Beef Recipes

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    • Yes, I’d be happy to deliver this cake. So, you put some cash in a brown paper bag and you leave it on a park bench and walk away … or maybe you and I meet at an abandoned warehouse, face each other about a dozen yards apart, and then I say, “did you bring the money?”

      Reply

    • The liqueur was given to me as a gift. It’s very thick and rich, like Baileys, but purely chocolate-fudge flavored. Very, very good. Definitely tastes alcoholic, but not intensely … again, a lot like Baileys. Worth seeking out.

      Reply

  5. I am all out of sugar! Ahhhhkkkk! I had hoped to bake something special like this but the sugar situation is bumming me out. We get sprung (cautiously) on Thursday so I’ll be able to refill my pantry.
    Thanks for the tip on Zoom, JT got a Facebook Portal yesterday so we’ll try it out for a bit. I think I’ve used zoom for meetings before
    Eva Taylor recently posted…Restaurant Review La Tagliatella, Almeria

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    • You know, as I was lamenting the empty row where toilet paper is usually sold, I had the idea to snap up a bag of sugar, and man I’ve been going through it! I’m going to gain 25 pounds during this quarantine.

      Reply

    • Ugh! How aggravating that would be. Hang in there. I’ve heard things are really rough out there.

      Reply

  8. Oh! What a wonderful looking cake. Lemon is my favorite when it comes to desserts, but I’ll never turn down chocolate. NEVER. And Mrs KR LOVES chocolate, so we’ll need to make this. 🙂
    John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…Spring Lamb Stew

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  10. There was a major blackout in NYC in the 80s (I think – maybe it was the 70s) and I thought that’s where and when blackout cake was invented. There was a recipe printed in the N.Y. Times shortly thereafter. But I just looked it up and it is from WW II, created by a bakery in Brooklyn to help cope with the mandatory blackouts. Which makes your revival of it perfect for these times, with our mandatory lockdowns. I’ll probably try the lemon first, once I get the required eggs!

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  11. Wow what a gorgeous cake! This definitely looks like just the treat to make staying at home fun. 😋 Love the tip about the paint brush for flour and cake crumbs on the counter, I’m so doing that!

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  12. Dear Jeff, what an amazing cake – love all about it, the decadent recipe, the fun name, the presentation and, of course, all that chocolate goodness. Fitting name indeed for these tumultous times – around here it has also been a bit of a challenge (to say the least) to re-fill some of the pantry items – like yeast, flour, and eggs…but baking (and cooking) for the ones we love is absolutely essential 🙂
    Stay safe, healthy and happy!
    Andrea
    The Kitchen Lioness recently posted…Lemon Waffle Rolls – Zitronenwaffelröllchen

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    • Oddly, here in Chicago, most stores are well stocked. But making the trip in and our of one remains a risk.

      Reply

  13. What a great celebration cake — a very happy birthday to your husband. My mom always said, “if it’s not lemon, it has to be chocolate — and if it’s not chocolate, it has to be lemon.” So your two cakes are right up my alley — because like mother like daughter. I love how you said, “a world of chocolate in every bite.” I might ask if I can steel that one day. 😉 ~Valentina

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  18. I just made the pudding for the cake I’ll be making tomorrow. That pudding tastes awesome!!
    I’ll let you know how the entire cake comes out. ☺️

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