Howltown Blackout Cake (Recipe inspired by UNBURY CAROL)

Confession: I don’t love chocolate. I never have.

(I hope you’re still reading.)

(Here’s a picture of cake dripping in icing to keep you interested.)

I was that weird kid at birthday parties who always asked for vanilla cupcakes while everyone else had chocolate frosting schmeared all over their faces. I once even lied and said I was allergic to chocolate just to get one of the three vanilla cupcakes brought in for a student who actually had an allergy to cocoa powder (thanks to Adam, wherever you are, for paving the way for me on that one).

It’s not that I hate chocolate. I just don’t love it. And prefer vanilla most of the time.

I was really scrounging for a recipe to pair with Unbury Carol. There’s definitely not a lot of food inspiration in this book, unless you wanna get kinda morbid and go for something burnt or smoked. (ha! *shudder*)

Carol spends a lot of time in Howltown (where she goes when she’s in her coma-like state), and one of the things she hammers home about that place is how freakin’ dark it is. It’s blacker than black, with no light to see anything. Like a perpetual blackout.

It sounds terrifying.

UNLESS. …The blackout was actually … a blackout…chocolate…CAKE!! *shouts gleefully*

I’ve heard of these so-dark-they’re-black chocolate cakes, but, as a non-chocoholic, I’ve never tried one. I decided it was time to branch out of my comfort zone a little, and you, my friends, will reap the rewards.

After much research, I discovered that a key ingredient to a blackout cake is the pudding in between the layers. I don’t know about you, but cake layered with pudding calls to mind too many bad wedding cakes (and christening cakes, and team sport recognition night event cakes, and basically ANY event where a mass-produced bakery cake is delivered after a less-than-stellar dinner of “chicken or fish?”).

So, I decided to nix the pudding layer. Not to mention, the recipes I found wanted me to make my own pudding. Ain’t no one got time for that. I can do it, sure. But, I have a cake to make, plus frosting. I figure the key component to the “blackout” cake is an insanely dark chocolate cake layer, so that’s what I’m aiming to bring you with my Howltown Blackout Cake.

This recipe uses Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder, and I was totally excited as I was baking this because the batter turned out so dark, it was almost black. It reminded me of making mudpies as a child, and who doesn’t love bringing a little childhood joy into their baking? Plus, look at the pattern that formed as I was pouring the batter into the cake pan. Looks pretty fitting for the novel I read, right?? Like creepy trees.

I also used the Special Dark cocoa powder to make the icing, and it, too, turned out incredibly dark with a nice hit of sweetness. Just look at it – this is #nofilter, people. It’s as black as midnight. That color in a cake completely thrills me.

Fair warning: this cake completely surprised me with the fact that, despite it’s amazingly dark color, its flavor is not intensely chocolately. You would expect it to be bursting with fudgy flavor, but the chocolate taste is actually very mild. It almost reminds me of a chocolate cake frosted doughnut; you get some chocolate flavor, but not too much because, after all, a doughnut is supposed to be for breakfast.

So, you could have this cake for breakfast. 😀

As I like to point out when I can, this cake batter comes together with just a spatula or wooden spoon; no kitchen appliances needed! One thing to note is that this incredibly thin batter fills the cake pan alarmingly up to the top. It shouldn’t overflow the pan when you bake it, but you’ll want to place the cake pan on a baking sheet, just in case—particularly because you’ll need to do a very careful walk from the counter to the oven when you’re ready to bake.

This cake is the perfect vehicle for vanilla ice cream, which really highlights the cocoa flavor. I imagine coffee ice cream would be good with it, too. Or mint chocolate chip. Okay, ANY ICE CREAM is good with this cake. Serve it with a scoop (or four), or top with fresh whipped cream and fresh fruit, like I did.

Howltown Blackout Cake

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 40 minutes mins

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

CAKE INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1/2 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups boiling water
• 2 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

CHOCOLATE GLAZE INGREDIENTS

• 2 tbsp Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
• 1 cup confection's sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp milk

Instructions

 

PREP INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350F. Spray baking spray on an 8” round cake pan and place pan on a parchment lined baking sheet. Set aside.
• Bring the 1 ½ cups of water to a boil.

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS

• In a large bowl, sift together the sugar, all-purpose flour, cake flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt until thoroughly combined.
• Gradually whisk the boiling water into the dry ingredients, adding the water in small increments. The batter should be smooth and relatively thin.
• Whisk in the eggs one a time, blending well after each addition, and then whisk in the oil. The batter will be very thin and oily.
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan on the baking sheet; it will fill the pan almost to the top. Carefully place the cake pan/baking sheet in the oven and bake at 350F for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Remove cake from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to continue cooling. Cool completely before adding glaze.

CHOCOLATE GLAZE INSTRUCTIONS

• Whisk all ingredients together and pour over cake. Let set in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Notes

Cake recipe is taken from: https://www.openhand.org/blog/recipe-cupcake-happiness