Blackout Cake

A couple of days ago, I stopped in the Starbucks up near my office for a late afternoon caffeine pick me up. While standing by the pastry case, I noticed some mini-Blackout Cakes.

For those who aren't privy to the culinary legends of old Brooklyn, the Blackout cake is a thing of great legendary status in New York City. It was originally produced by Ebinger's Bakery in Brooklyn and sold only in their company owned bakeries throughout the borough. It was sold in a cardboard Entenemen's type box tied with red and white twine.

When I moved to New York almost 15 years ago, the Blackout cake was getting its rebirth. 20 years prior, Ebingers had gone out of business. Probably a victiom of the changing ethncity of the Briooklyn neighborhoods in which it operated.

Another local bakery, after some urging by the local food press took up the manufacture of these cakes again which were sold in groceries throughout the five boroughs. Natives said that the new cake was good, but that it wasn't an Ebinger's Blackout cake. I liked it.

Suddenly, there were blackout cakes everywhere. Ben Benson's even had one on its dessert menu. If Daniel Bolud had been in New York at the time, he probably would have had a blackout cake stuffed with black truffles, foie gras, and a short rib. But, it probably would have cost a hundred bucks.

The reborn Blackout Cake was a medium dark chocolate cake that was apparently enriched by the addition of some chocolate chips and filled with a chocolate pudding. The result was a dense moist cake that was iced with a chocolate fondant to preserve freshness, I imagine, more than for taste.

Anyway, the point is this: the Starbuck's mini-Blackout was darned good. A rich little hockey puck sized cake, rich, dense and moist. A great afternoon pick me up.

Does anyone know of a bakery in Chicago that does something along the lines of a blackout cake. My trip to Tony's Finer Foods the other night found lots of boxed cakes. But, no Blackout.

HI,

Did the origins of the cake's name have anything to do with the Great Blackout of 1964?

My family was living in Massachusetts when the Blackout occured. Mom had just finished making dinner of corned beef hash, when the lights went out. We ate dinner, then all snuggled in bed listening to the radio. Why we didn't just go to sleep, I don't know, but we spent a considerable amount of the night listening to the radio.

Rare as it is to catch Cathy mistaking anything, the great New York blackout was November 9, 1965, a little after 5:00 p.m. (5:16 exactly). I was on the subway in the Bronx, fortunately at a station, so I could get out and found a cab to my grandmother's apartment on the Grand Concourse.

Most New Yorkers of a certain age can tell you where they were that night.

Since this is a chowist listserv, she made some terrific chicken noodle soup and pot roast (well, I don't recall that so well, but it coulda happened).

Accoprding to Molly O'Neill's "New York Cookbook" the original Ebingers opened for business in 1898. At it's peak, there were 54 Ebinger's Bakeries in the borough of Brooklyn. The company went bankrupt in 1972.

In 1982, a baker by the name of Lou Guerra opened a new Ebinger's in Bay Ridge . He claimed to have the original Ebinger's recipes. The New York Times claimed his Blackout cake authentic. Unfortunately, the 24 hour shelf life of an Ebinger's cake was not conducive to a retail sales environment in a supermarket where it had to be replaced daily. Ths Guerra changed then recipe to increase its shelf life. According to traditionalists, it never achieved the pastry status of it's predecessor.

In the late 80s, Guerra sold out to a guy who commercialized Ebinger's operation making its cakes no different than the more common Enteneman's.

Maybe it's just a product whose time has passed.

As I write this, I'm reminded of a recipe in Maida Heatter's Book of Chocolate desserts that may equal the Blackout Cake. The New Orleans layer cake is a double decker filled with a chocolate pudding, then iced with whipped sweet cream.

Alll that said, the Brooklyn Blackout Cake probably preceded the Blackout by a few years.

Interesting. Here is a web article that mentions Ina Pinkney of Ina's fame who was a native of Brooklyn and a fan of Ebinger's Blackout cake.

Could my search have just ended?

http://www.globalgourmet.com/ggt/ggt0298/ggt021198.html

Hi,

Jill van Cleave, author of Neighborhood Bakeshop, is the wife of William Rice who recently retired from the Chicago Tribune. I have a copy of her book from her visit to Culinary Historians a few years ago.

GAF - I made a poor attempt to verify the year of the Great Blackout. My gut feeling it was 1965, then I was trying to remember was I in first grade or kindergarten. I do absolutely recall dinner was canned corned beef hash cooked in a turquois electric frying pan we still own.

My memory collects dust bunny bits of information many would never hold on to.

Hi,

My friend Monica Kass Rogers has LostRecipesFound.com a web magazine devoted to finding old recipes.

I was looking around her site to see Gale Gand submitted her version of the Brooklyn Blackout cake, which she had old customers help vet it. You can find it here.

Regards,

Hi,

Cook's Country published their attempt at recreating the Blackout Cake. There was a sidebar on the origins of the cake. It was inspired by Work War II blackouts designed to camouflage the Navy ships in New York harbor.

Regards,