Recipe Review: “Magic” Chocolate Custard Cake

If you, like me, like to waste your day away looking at pretty pictures of food on pinterest, you have probably seen this recipe before. Oh, the infamous magic custard cake that separates into three layers! So, I had some free time and all the ingredients so I decided to give it a go. Below is an annotated recipe where I can provide some tips for the best cake.

The recipe I used was from: http://www.giverecipe.com/chocolate-magic-custard-cake.html

Firstly, this recipe says it will take 15 minutes. Yeah no. This will take about three hours start to finish.

Ingredients:

4 eggs, at room temperature (they don’t actually need to be at room temp.)

1 teaspoon vanilla powder or extract

1 and ¼ cup sugar

110g butter, melted (this is equivalent to a stick aka 8 T.)

½ cup all purpose flour

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups milk, lukewarm

1 tablespoon powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

Preheat oven to 320F (160C). Grease a 30cmx17cm baking pan (I used a square pan that is about 3” deep and either 8x8 or 9x9) and line it with parchment paper. (DO NOT line with parchment paper!!!!! I did this an the batter leaked under making my bottom layer uneven and making a lot of waste! Just grease it or line it entirely with paper like, up the sides which one large piece, no holes! This will make your corners uneven though.)

Separate egg whites and yolks. Beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff and put aside.

Whisk egg yolks, vanilla and sugar until creamy. (It will come together into a pale yellow paste)

Add melted butter and mix for half a minute. Add the flour and unsweetened cocoa powder. Mix with a spatula until incorporated well. Pour the milk gradually and continue beating.

Add in the egg whites, one third at a time and gently mix with a spatula. (do not “gently mix” whisk the egg whites until you see small flakes of the whites fully incorporated into the liquid. I’ve seen the appearance described as curd like. This is just liquid at this point anyway so it is impossible to fold.)

Pour this liquidy batter  (it’s literally the texture of milk) into the baking pan and bake for 60 minutes. (you are going to have to trust it is done because the toothpick test will not work. Touch the top with a finger. Feel like cake? Feels semi-sold and not like liquid under your finger? It’s probably done.)

Let it cool and when it comes to room temperature chill for an hour. (make sure it is very cool! May take over an hour.)

Slice it in the size you like and dust with powdered sugar right before serving. (You have to turn this out upside down to serve. The bottom layer is like pudding so it’s impossible to scoop out like that.)

Keep it in refrigerator until you finish it all.

my magical layers

So, what’s it like you ask? The top layer after baking is like the cross between cake and brownie. The middle layer is like a custard or pudding and the bottom layer is strange. It’s thicker like a sort of gelatin; it’s my least favorite layer.  In general though, it’s just okay. It is not that chocolatey or that sweet. Mine turned a light brown color, not a super dark rich brown. The textures are also weird for me. This is definitely a novelty cake not a “this is so delicious, I want this all the time!” sort of deal.

Overall, this recipe does work to give a three layer custardy cake. It is not amazingly delicious though and takes quite a lot of work and time for a mediocre flavor.