Lost Foods of New York City: Brooklyn Blackout Cake

[elleng]

'Today, the cake that once defined the borough’s sweet tooth is hardly a blip on New York’s dessert radar—unless you ask someone over the age of 55. Then the floodgates open and you begin to hear apocryphal tales like the one food historian Arthur Schwartz shares in his book New York City Food (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2004).

“[When my sister and I] were teenagers and didn’t have dates on a Saturday night," he writes, "we would consume an entire cake.”

To bring the youngsters (myself included) up to speed: blackout cake is a three-tiered devil’s food cake layered with chocolate pudding, slicked with dark chocolate frosting, and topped with additional devil’s food crumbs. The cake was popularized in Brooklyn by the Ebinger Baking Company, a one-storefront operation opened in 1898 on Flatbush Avenue that, over time, swelled to a baking institution with more than 50 locations around Brooklyn and Queens. . .

Brooklyn Blackout Cake This cake isn’t terribly hard to make, but there are a terrible number of steps. Simplify the preparation by prepping the ingredients for each step before getting started on it. Also, since this cake is all about the chocolate, I recommend using good quality cocoa and chocolate.

https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2012/08/lost-foods-of-new-york-city-brooklyn-blackout-cake-072297