Brooklyn Blackout Cake

If you love chocolate, you will LOVE this cake!!!  The legendary and famous Brooklyn, NY bakery Ebinger's takes the credit for this decadent cake.  Ebinger's is no longer in business but when I did an internet search on this cake, many people fondly talk about this bakery and their love for this cake.  It's made of all chocolate goodness ~ a dark chocolate cake, a chocolate custardy filling, and chocolate frosting ~ all of this is then coated with the chocolate cake crumbs = chocolate heaven :)
This was my first attempt at this cake, I loved it and will make again and may tweak along the way.  It is a very messy and long process between the custard, frosting and crumbs, the messiest cake I've ever made, but was worth it.  *Note - the custard needs about 5 hours to set, so its recommended you make this the night before.



Layering the cake and filling it with custard, 1 more layer to go to top this off!

Filling
2 Tbsp dutch processed cocoa
1 1/2 cups hot water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 oz semisweet chocolate chips
4 Tbsps cornstarch dissolved in 2 1/2 tbsps water
1/4 tsp salt
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Cake
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup dutch processed cocoa
1 cup strong black coffee
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Frosting
1 12 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 Tbsp light corn syrup
1 tsps vanilla extract
3 Tbsp of the prepared filling

Filling:  In a medium saucepan, heat the cocoa powder, hot water, sugar and chocolate over low heat, stirring until the cocoa dissolves and the chocolate melts.  Add the dissolved cornstarch and salt, increase the heat to med-high and boil gently for 2-3 mins, stirring constantly, until thickened.  Remove from the heat, add butter and vanilla and stir until the butter melts.  Pour filling into a metal bowl and cover with plastic wrap - pressing wrap onto surface to prevent a skin from forming.  Refrigerate until filling thickens at least 5 hours or overnight.
Frosting:  Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir until the chocolate and butter are melted and smooth.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.  Then add the lukewarm water and whisk until the frosting is smooth.  Stir in the corn syrup and vanilla.  Let frosting sit at room temp until it cools and thickens slightly, refrigerate just a few mins before frosting to thicken it a bit.  Mix in 3 Tbsp of the custard to the frosting before using.
Cake:  Spray 2 - 8"  cake pans with baking spray, line bottoms with parchment paper (cut out to fit bottom only), spray bottom and sides generously with baking spray.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl.  Melt the butter in a large saucepan (large enough to fit dry ingredients too, later) over medium heat.  Stir in cocoa and cook about 1 min until smooth.  Remove from heat and whisk in the coffee, buttermilk and sugars until dissolved.  Whisk in eggs and vanilla, then slowly whisk in flour mixture until incorporated and smooth.  Divide batter between prepared pans and bake about 30 mins or just until toothpick comes out clean - do not overcook.  Cool layers in pans about 15 mins then invert onto wire rack to cool completely.  Slice layers in half using a serrated knife.  Take one of the layers and crumble it up into crumbs and set aside for finishing off the cake.  Cover your cake platter with a piece of waxed paper cut in half in the middle and overlap the separation (this is to protect your platter from the big mess coming up) Place one layer on your cake platter and spread about 3/4 cup custard over cake, then top with next cake layer.  Repeat spreading 3/4 cup custard and topping with last cake layer.  Spread a thin layer of the frosting over top and sides of cake using an offset metal spatula.  Refrigerate the cake for about 15 mins until firm.  Then spread remaining frosting over the top and sides of the cake.  Sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the cake and press them onto the sides, utilizing all of the crumbs to make a thick crumb coating.  Remove the wax paper.  Refrigerate before serving.  Let sit at room temp for about 45 mins before serving.
Adapted from recipes from: Book "Chocolate Cakes"  and Cooks Country recipe

Enjoy!

Italian Rainbow Cookies

Today I will take you on a pictorial journey showing you the step by step process of making  Italian Rainbow Cookies, a confection made with layers of brightly colored, almond-based sponge cake, apricot and/or raspberry jam, and a chocolate coating. This journey will not take long, but if you choose to actually venture to make these, set aside a good couple of hours and some patience.  This was my first attempt and happily discovered these were not difficult to make, just very time consuming.  The recipe source I used is from Bon Appetit, their printable recipe is here:  http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/05/rainbow-cookies  These cookies are also known as Italian Flag cookies because the colors resemble the Italian Flag.

 

**Special Equipment and ingredients:  you will need 3 13 x 9 x 2" metal baking pans; almond paste - which is quite expensive,  by me 1- 7oz tube was $6.99!

Ingredients:

4 sticks unsalted butter, cubed and at room temp

6 large eggs, whites and yolks separated

1 1/3 cups sugar divided

12 oz almond paste, broken up (a little less then 1 1/2 7 oz tubes)

2 3/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp salt

1 tsp red food coloring

1 tsp green food coloring

3/4 cup raspberry jam (or apricot)

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped and melted - wait to melt when your ready to finish off the cookies

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line your 3 pans with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang, spray pans generously with baking spray.  Put egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk and beat until soft peaks form.  Slowly add 1/3 cup of the sugar, beating until stiff peaks form, like below. Transfer to a large bowl, cover and chill. Using the paddle attachment beat the almond paste and remaining sugar on med-low until incorporated, 4-5 mins.  Increase speed to med-high, gradually add butter, beat until fluffy.  Beat in yolks, then flour and salt.  Fold in whites in 2 additions.  The batter will be very thick.

Divide batter evenly among 3 bowls (as evenly as you can, I weighed mine to get them as close as possible). Mix red coloring into 1 bowl and green coloring into second bowl; leave third bowl plain.  Spread 1 bowl of batter into each prepared pan, smoothing tops with an offset spatula.  Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until just set 9-10 mins.  Let cool in pans.

When completely cooled, start the layering:  with a pastry brush spread half of the jam over the green cake - I used all raspberry on both layers - but you can use apricot or orange marmalade or a combination of these.    

Now carefully, using the foil overhang, lift plain layer of pan and invert onto green layer, discard foil.

Yes, did it!  Then brush remaining jam over plain layer.  

Carefully, again, lift the red layer out of pan using the overhang and invert onto the plain layer 

Cover cake with foil and top with a 13x9x2 pan.  Weigh down pan with several heavy canned goods to compress the cake layers.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to 1 day.

Remove cans, top and foil.  Transfer cake to a waxed paper lined baking sheet.  Spread half of the melted chocolate over cake in a thin layer using an offset spatula. Then freeze for 10 mins.  Cover with waxed paper, and invert the baking sheet on top and flip the cake.  Uncover and glaze with remaining chocolate, then freeze an additional 10 mins.

It looks a little messy at this point (so does my kitchen - don't look, it's very busy this time of year!!), but don't fear, we are going to trim it next and make it look all neat :)

With a good serrated knife trim off edges to make the cake approx 12 x 8"

Don't throw those edges out, save them to eat!

Then cut into six 2" wide strips, look how neat they are looking, like real rainbow cookies!!

Then cut each strip crosswise into 96 1/2 " wide cookies (2" x 1/2" cookies).  Store in an airtight container.

 

All my rainbow cookie lover friends and family loved these and were quite impressed!  

Don't be intimated by the process it was fun and very worth it. 

Enjoy!