Brooklyn Blackout Cake

I received the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook for Christmas last year, and the pictures are yummy enough to eat.
I've spoken to a few people who have had bad experiences baking from this book with regards to the quantities of the ingredients. I haven't had any problems really, and the ones I did have I'm pretty sure were down to my cooking rather than the recipes!


Brooklyn Blackout Cake is seriously a chocolate lover's heaven! The filling and frosting on top are made from an eggless chocolate custard, and the top is covered with crumbled chocolate sponge.


Here is a condensed version of Hummingbird's recipe:


Cream 100g butter with 260g caster sugar. Add 2 eggs, and beat in ¼ tsp vanilla extract, 45g cocoa powder, ¾ tsp baking powder, ¾ tsp bicarb and a pinch of salt.
Add half the flour (170g plain flour), then 160ml whole milk, followed by the rest of the flour. Pour the mixture into 3 lined 20cm cake tins, and bake in a 170°C preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.


For the chocolate custard (filling & frosting) put 500g caster sugar, 1 tbsp golden syrup, 125g cocoa powder and 600ml water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil, whisking occasionally. Mix 200g cornflour with 120-200ml water, whisking briskly as you add the water. (The mixture needs to look like thick glue, so add water until it does.) Whisk the cornflour mix gradually into the cocoa mix and bring back to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in 85g butter and ½ tsp vanilla extract. Cover with clingfilm and chill until very firm.


To prepare...slice a thin layer off one of the cakes and whizz it in a food processor (I didn't use one, but would definitely recommend doing so as it is very hard to crumble finely enough!)
Put one of the cakes on a cake stand and spread with one-quarter of the custard, place another on top and another quantity of the custard. Top with the last cake and spread the remaining custard over the top and sides. Finally cover with the crumbs.

This cake goes well with custard or cream. It is very rich so one cake will go along way! I halved the quantities above for the cake in the picture.
PS. The picture in the actual book looks significantly more yummy, so maybe look at that instead...