Chocolate “Brooklyn Blackout” Cupcakes

Have you ever had a chocolate craving so intense that the normal cookie or chocolate bar can’t cure it? Well, when you have the need for a real hit of the good stuff, you need to break out these bad boys and you’ll be set for a week. These cupcakes are so dark and decadent that you think to yourself, ‘I really shouldn’t do this’ as you grab the first one… or the second one, or the third one. Hey, you’re at home, you worked hard to make them, and I’m not judging you! I can’t wait any longer, let’s get our chocolate on!

This is more than chocolate cake and chocolate frosting- this is Brooklyn Blackout territory, baby. Brooklyn Blackout cake is something pretty special. It was given the snappy nickname by Ebinger’s Bakery during World War II, in a nod to the mandatory blackouts instituted to protect the nearby Navy Yard. It’s traditionally made as a round dark chocolate cake, with each layer separated by chocolate pudding, topped with dark chocolate frosting, and then coated with chocolate cake crumbs. It’s a whole lot of chocolate commitment- and that’s coming from someone who adores chocolate! So I decided to break it down a bit and into more manageable portions. And everyone loves a cupcake, right?

Before we get into the recipe, I did make a few minor changes to the ‘traditional’ cake to help its rebirth as a cupcake. The first thing I changed is the pudding layers. Obviously, a cupcake doesn’t have layers, so I decided to fill my cupcakes instead. And instead of filling them with pudding, I filled them with more of the dark chocolate buttercream frosting that we’ll be making today. I didn’t like how the moisture of the pudding softened the inside of the cupcake, or the mess that could spill out after you take a bite near the center. Using the frosting instead takes care of both the moisture and mess issues. The other thing that I changed  is the cake crumbs on the outside of the frosting- there’s nothing wrong with doing it that way, but I much prefer to crush up some Oreo wafers and sprinkle them over the top of the cupcakes instead. They stay drier and I’m a sucker for Oreo’s!

How Do I Make Really Dark Chocolate Cupcakes?

• Simply put, you want to use the darkest ingredients that you can. That means dark cocoa powder, if you can find it. Hershey’s makes a nice Special Dark that’s usually available in most grocery stores, or you can find a good one on Amazon. When it comes to Dutch processed cocoa vs. unsweetened powder, don’t worry too much about it- either will work. The difference between Dutch processed cocoa and regular unsweetened is that processed cocoa undergoes a process to neutralize its acidity, and it can darken the cocoa. But these cupcakes will be plenty dark with the more readily available unsweetened cocoa.
• To even good cocoa distribution through your batter, measure and sift your combined flour and cocoa together.
• Instead of butter, which can lighten the batter, you’ll use vegetable oil.
• In the place of milk, you use brewed coffee.

TIP: If you really don’t like the taste of coffee in your baked goods, you can use something water-based. I’ve made these using water mixed with a couple spoonfuls of hot cocoa powder and they came out great!

How Do I Fill Cupcakes?

This is easy! All you’ll need is the frosting in the recipe, a large piping bag, and a bismarck piping tip. A bismarck tip, which you can find here on Amazon, is basically an elongated tip that you” insert right through the top of your cupcake and about 2/3 of the way down. Hold the cupcake in your hand and squeeze the piping bag firmly to press frosting into the cupcake. You should feel a couple small ‘pops’ from inside your cupcake as the cake compresses to make room for the frosting. As soon as the sides begin to bulge, slowly back the tip out of the cupcake, continuing to dispense frosting until the tip is all the way out. Try the entire process on a practice cupcake and see how you do- it’s easy not use enough frosting your first time filling cupcakes, so check and adjust your amounts if you need to.

How Do I Make Really Dark Chocolate Frosting?

• You need dark frosting for these cupcakes- nothing milk chocolate looking is going to work here. So again, you’re going to want to use brewed coffee as your liquid base, mixed with a little heavy cream. You can use the same coffee/hot cocoa powder swap tip as in the cupcake base above if you’re still not sold on the coffee.
• Use the same special dark cocoa powder as in the cupcake batter.
• Now, some people put cream cheese in their frosting, but I’m not a cream cheese girl. I like to use regular salted butter, but as pale a color as possible. Where do you find pale butter? Anywhere cheap! Don’t buy that fancy Kerrygold stuff, just go to WalMart and buy their store brand salted butter, which is usually the palest around.
• Finally, maybe you’ve done all these things and for some reason you still don’t have that super dark color that you want. We can hack it! Grab your black and brown gel food coloring and put a couple drops of each into your frosting and blend it well. Remember that gel dye will darken a bit over time, so don’t turn it black with dye while mixing. You just want to add enough to nudge it in the right direction.
• To achieve the same frosting shape as I have in these photos, use a 1M open star tip. Starting at the outside edge, use firm pressure to dispense frosting in a circle around the edge. As soon as you complete the circle, keep up the pressure and move the piping tip inward about half an inch and circle again, and then move inward again for a final loop. When you reach the center, press down slightly while continuing to squeeze out frosting, and then release. You should get a nice, pointed tip to your frosting.

Enough chatting, let’s get baking!

Chocolate "Brooklyn Blackout" Cupcakes

Try these cupcakes full of all the chocolate you could every need, from But First, Cookies!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 25 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 18 cupcakes

Ingredients

  

Blackout Cupcakes

• 2 cups flour all purpose
• 1 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ¾ cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup brewed coffee

Blackout Frosting

• 1½ cups butter salted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 cups confectioner's sugar
• ½ cup brewed coffee cold
• 1½ cup dark cocoa powder
• ⅛ cup heavy cream
• 24 chocolate Oreo cookie wafers (12 cookies total) creme removed, finely crushed

Instructions

 

Blackout Cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350°. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a separate large bowl, blend the eggs and vegetable oil.
• In stages, add the dry ingredients to the egg/oil bowl, mixing well after each addition. Pour in the coffee and vanilla extract, mixing until combined. Batter will be thin.
• Pour batter into cupcake liners, filling each about ¾ of the way to full. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Blackout Frosting

• Remove the filling from 12 Oreos and finely crush the wafers. Set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder.
• In a large measuring cup, combine the cold coffee and the heavy cream and stir with a spoon.
• Add the dry bowl and the coffee mixture to the butter bowl in stages, alternating between the two until fully combined. Beat the frosting on high 5 minutes or until at desired consistency.
• NOTE: This step is where you can add a few drop of gel food coloring if your frosting hasn't turned out as dark as it should- see the 'How to Make Really Dark Frosting' section above.
• Divide the frosting, place ¼ into bismarck piping bag to fill the cupcakes, and the rest into a piping bag with a 1M star tip.
• Fill the cupcakes, and then frost each. Top each cupcake with a generous sprinkle of Oreo crumbs immediately after frosting.

Keyword blackout, chocolate, cupcake, frosting

Well, are you in a chocolate coma yet? I haven’t done my job right if you’re not incapacitated on the couch in your sweatpants after you make these cupcakes.  As always, make sure to visit the comments below if you have any comments or questions that I can help answer for you. Happy September, and happy baking!