Sunday, October 23, 2011

Brooklyn Blackout Cake





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For my daughter’s 13th birthday, I let her pick out what kind of cake she wanted.  She is a bit of a chocolate lover so I expected her to want chocolate. She came back with a picture of Brooklyn Blackout Cake, a famously rich dark chocolate three layer cake that looked unbelievably decadent.  I was a little intimidated and unsure if I could pull off such a feat.  My baking usually involves a box of cake mix.  I searched and found a recipe that I thought looked good.
 
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I had never heard of Brooklyn Blackout Cake but apparently, there was a chain of bakeries in Brooklyn named Ebinger’s  founded in 1898 by George and Catherine Ebinger.  It was famous, especially for its blackout cake sold in a signature blue box.  They eventually closed due to bankruptcy in 1972.  Named for wartime blackouts, the Brooklyn Blackout Cake was a layer cake with a pudding filling and was frosted with dark fudge and covered in cake crumbs.  The Ebingers never released their original recipes and have left their devotees clamoring to find a substitute that can hold up to the Ebinger standard.


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The recipe I used was from Leite’s Culinaria.  Follow the link for ingredients and directions.  She calls her recipe new and improved because she altered the pudding filling to be thicker and stay more firmly on the layers. The only thing I did different was use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder (blend of natural and Dutch-process cocoa) for the unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa.  For the semisweet chocolate, I used Ghirardelli.  Other than using the dark cocoa, I pretty much followed her recipe to a T.  She gives easy to follow instructions and I just went step by step.  I did not use parchment paper as she did, simply because I didn’t have any but I didn’t have any problems with my cake sticking to my pans. 

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The cake turned out beautifully and my daughter and her friends were quite impressed.  Everyone loved it, even my significant other who doesn’t really like chocolate.  I sent a piece to my mom and she said if you can make this, you can make anything!  It is a perfect dessert to take to dinners and functions when you want to make a good impression. This cake is a chocolate lover’s dream.  It is rich and decadent but the pudding filling helps to balance it so that it is not too much. 

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I don’t know how this cake compares with the original Ebinger’s Blackout Cake but it tastes so good,it doesn’t even matter.  I wish I would’ve taken some better photos because these really don’t do the cake justice but at the time, I wasn’t even thinking about blogging about it. 


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4 comments:

  1. Oh wow!!!!It looks so yummy. I LOVE chocolate and I would pick this one too. I'm going to try this for a special occassion. I'm now a pinterest follower too.
    Ann

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  2. I think you did a fantastic job recreating the cake! Im sure she loved it. Happy birthday to your daughter...ahh the teenage years..exciting!

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  3. It looks great!! Love that your daughter chose this :)

    Jenny
    http://simcoestreet.blogspot.com/

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  4. Love the Brooklyn Blackout cake! A chocolate filling to die for!
    bakery cafe brooklyn

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