The richest cake you will ever eat
It was recently my brown haired flatmate’s birthday so the ginger one and I baked what is known as the Brooklyn Blackout Cake. It was one of the richest, most decadent cakes I have ever tasted, in fact at times perhaps a bit too rich. Taken from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe book it is actually easier than it looks to make. Instead of buttercream, the recipe makes a chocolate custard mixture. Out first experience using cornflour to bake, the custard at one point looked like something out of Ghostbusters. It didn’t stay this way for long though and ended up into something truly delightful. The cake is supposed to have three layers but we only had two cake tins and as a result piled the chocolate custard on extremely high, so this could be why we found it quite rich…
Beaten using our own muscle power
Ingredients
For the cake:
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
260g caster sugar
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon baking powder
45g cocoa powder
170g plain flour
160ml whole milk
Pinch of salt
For the chocolate custard:
500g caster sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
125g cocoa powder
160g – 200g cornflour
85g unsalted butter, cubed
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
What you need:
3, butter lined, cake tins (we used 2)
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Put the butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer and cream until light and fluffy (or beat with you fair arms like us).
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well. Turn the mixer down (or your arms) to slow speed and beat in the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt until well mixed.
Add half the flour, then all the milk, and finish with the remaining flour. Mix well until everything is well combined.Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tins and smooth over.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes. Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tins before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
For the chocolate custard:
Put the sugar, golden syrup, cocoa powder and 600ml water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil over medium heat, whisking occasionally.
Mix the cornflour with 120ml water. This will look like liquid but have the consistency of something very gloopy and stiff. It’s quite disconcerting.
Then whisk into the cocoa mixture in the saucepan. Bring back to the boil, whisking constantly. Cook until very thick, about 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract. Pour the custard into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and chill until firm.
When the cakes are cool, slice a think layer off one of the cakes. Put this layer in a food processor and process to make fine crumbs.
Put one cake on a cake stand and spread about one-quarter of the chocolate custard over it with a palette knife. Place a second cake on top and spread another quarter of the custard over it. Top with the last cake and spread the remaining custard over the top and sides. Cover with the cake crumbs and chill for about 2 hours.
EAT.
{ 0 comments }