two little red hens' brooklyn blackout cake
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Two Little Red Hens is a beloved bakery on the Upper East Side in NYC and they’re well known for pies and cheesecakes amongst many other delicious baked goods but in particular, their brooklyn blackout cake is superb. It is a rich and decadent explosion of chocolate and not for the faint of heart. While the cake itself is light, once sandwiched between layers of pudding each bite is velvety smooth. Did I maybe consider proximity to Two Little Red Hens a factor when looking for an apartment? Perhaps.
I would encourage everyone to make it a pit stop when visiting NYC (over some other well known bakeries, like Magnolia) but I hate to be the bearer of bad news. Unfortunately, Two Little Red Hens has been closed for renovations for the past year and are now looking for a new location (hopefully still in this neighborhood) with no estimated date for reopening. This has clearly been a very challenging time for people in this neighborhood.
Finally, I decided to take matters into my own hands and I present to you my version of the Two Little Red Hens brooklyn blackout cake.
What is brooklyn blackout cake?
Think chocolate on chocolate on chocolate with a side of chocolate. We’ve got 4 layers of chocolate cake filled with chocolate pudding and covered in a chocolate fudge frosting. Then throw on some nice chocolate crunchies and there you go. If you like, no, love chocolate then this is the cake for you.
This is a cake where the quality of the ingredients really shines. Invest in the high quality cocoa powder and chocolate (I prefer Valrhona) because you will use these in every element of the cake. If you have more of a sweet tooth, feel free to use a lower percentage chocolate - I prefer 60% bittersweet - or bump up the sugar a bit to your taste. I wanted more of the bittersweet qualities of the chocolate to shine through as this is a cake that can easily get weighed down by all its components.
A few tips:
It is very important to make sure the cakes are properly cooled before slicing and frosting.
Build the cake on a cake board which helps you move the cake and keep your layers neat and organized. It is cheap to order a pack from Amazon or any cake supply shop.
Each of the components can be easily made ahead of time and stored in the fridge until you’re ready to build the cake.
The tools you need to create a neatly iced cake are an offset spatula and bench scraper. Use the offset spatula to spread the icing onto the cake and the bench scraper to create the clean edges. To create the patterned look on top, use a serrated knife to lightly scrape the frosting.
When frosting, starting with a crumb coat is necessary to create a clean finished look and prevents any cake crumbs from mixing in with your final frosting. To make the final frosting even easier, stick the cake into the fridge for 20 min after applying the crumb coat to firm it up a little bit.
two little red hens’ brooklyn blackout cake
makes one 6 inch cake
ingredients
for the chocolate cake:
2 cups AP flour
1/2 cup high quality cocoa powder (Valrhona)
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup hot water
1 shot espresso (optional)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste (optional)
for the chocolate pudding:
2 + 1/2 cups of whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cocoa powder (Valrhona)
1 egg + 2 egg yolks
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60%), chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste (optional)
for the fudge frosting:
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup heavy cream
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (60%), chopped
for the chocolate crumble:
1/3 cup AP flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder (Valrhona)
4 tablespoons melted butter
steps
chocolate cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
1. Prepare the 6 inch cake pans: Wipe the inside of your cake pans with butter and dust with some flour. Cut a sheet of circular parchment paper to line the bottom of your pan to ensure that your cakes will have no problem coming out.
2. Mix dry ingredients: Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in large bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine wet ingredients: Mix together the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, sour cream, espresso and vanilla paste (if using). You won’t be able to explicitly taste the espresso and vanilla but it helps deepen the chocolate flavor.
4. Mixing everything together: Using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, mix together the dry ingredients with the wet. As the mixture begins to come together, pour in the hot water. Mix until just combined - you will have a thin batter - and pour evenly between your two prepared cake pans.
5. Bake: Bake in the preheated oven for ~25 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch and an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean.
6. Trim the cake tops: Once cake is completely cool, remove from pan and using a serrated knife, cut off the domed top of the cakes until flat. Wrap in plastic and store in refrigerator until ready to frost.
chocolate pudding:
1. Make a cornstarch slurry: In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup milk, cornstarch and cocoa powder until no lumps remain.
2. Heat up milk: In a saucepan, bring the rest of the milk, sugar, and salt to a boil. Stir to make sure the sugar gets dissolved evenly. Mix in the cornstarch mixture whisking constantly until the mixture thickens to coat the back of a spoon.
3. Mix in eggs: In a heatproof bowl, whisk the eggs together. Gradually whisk in half of the hot milk mixture until evenly mixed and pour everything back into the saucepan. Continue cooking over moderate heat, continuing to whisk, until mixture comes to a boil.
4. Finish with chocolate and butter: Mix in the chocolate, butter, and vanilla (if using) and whisk until everything is melted and fully incorporated. Transfer pudding into a container with plastic wrap directly pressed against the surface and refrigerate for ~2 hours.
fudge frosting:
1. Cream butter: In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth at medium speed. Adjust to low speed and mix in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder until evenly mixed.
2. Mix in chocolate: Heat up the heavy cream in a saucepan until simmering and pour over the chocolate. Leave for 30 seconds, and mix until all the chocolate and heavy cream are evenly mixed into a chocolate ganache. Pour the chocolate into the buttercream and mix on medium speed until evenly incorporated. Refrigerate for 30 min to let the frosting firm up.
chocolate crumble:
Preheat oven to 300 F
1. Mix dry ingredients: In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, add the flour, cornstarch, sugar, and cocoa powder and mix together on low speed.
2. Add butter: Add in the butter and continue mixing to evenly mix with the dry ingredients until the mixture starts to clump together.
3. Bake: Spread onto a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. The crumbs will still be somewhat soft and will harden as they cool.
putting it all together:
preparing the cake: once the cake is fully cool, use a serrated knife to slice off the domed tops of the cakes and slice each cake in half through the middle horizontally to get 4 even layers of cake.
the rest of the cake should be compiled as follows. You should have the pudding, fudge, and chocolate crumble ready at hand along with an offset spatula and bench scraper.
Prepare a cardboard cake round on a spinning turntable. Add the first layer of cake followed by a layer of pudding using an offset spatula. Continue alternating between cake and pudding until you add your final layer of cake. Use the leftover pudding to apply a thin crumb coat.
Frost the outside layer with the fudge frosting, using the bench scraper to help even out the frosting. Use a serrated knife to gently imprint a pattern on the top of the cake.
Gently press the chocolate crumble around the sides of the cake
Prepare a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and fill with all the leftover fudge. Pipe large shells around the edge on top of the cake.
