In Brooklyn, the Blackout Cake is legendary. It doesn’t look like anything special—three layers of devil’s food cake sandwiching a dark chocolate pudding with chocolate frosting, all sprinkled with devil’s food cake crumbs—but old-time Brooklynites quiver at the
mere mention of the cake, or the sight of its famous pale green box with brown crosshatching. The original cake was made by Ebinger’s Bakery, which opened its doors on Flatbush Avenue in 1898 and eventually became a string of over 50 branches. But
financial instability ultimately caused the bakery to go bankrupt, and in 1972 Ebinger’s and their famous Blackout Cake went the way of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field. Since then, others have tried to market their own versions of the cake, but none of
these seems to have recaptured the magic of the original Blackout Cake for die-hard Ebingerists. The best that they can do it is tap into their taste memories and try to replicate the original commercial recipe at home. Even if it’s not a perfect match, how bad can it be?
It’s all chocolate, isn’t it? Anyhow, below is my version, turned into cupcakes. Note that you will probably have some pudding left over, but it’s delicious on its own as a dessert or snack.
