It was my mother in law's birthday yesterday and it was a rare occasion that we got to celebrate the day with her as she lives far out by the coast. However, this year, she's done us a lovely favour by spending a couple of weeks with us helping to look after little girl, which has allowed me to sleep in on several occasions (thank you!) and allowed several date nights for C and I (thank you!)
Given it was her birthday, and as a big thank you, I wanted to go all out with this cake! I wasn't very keen on the idea of making another chocolate cake given I just made one two weeks ago (I like to chop and change things a bit!) but C managed to convince me that this is exactly what his mum would enjoy.
I must admit that as I was making up a second batch of chocolate buttercream frosting to complete the layered cake, I had a moment of serious self doubt thinking that C's mum would really dislike this cake. Like me, she's not a fan of heavy desserts and sickeningly sweet stuff, which is exactly how this cake was turning out to be, and I was kicking myself (and cursing C) for not going with my gut instinct of baking a light sponge cake with passionfruit curd (another time)! All my doubts were put aside when C's mum had the first slice! Phew! I was so relieved!
It's no secret I am a huge fan of David Lebovitz's Devils Food Cake, which has been my go-to chocolate cake for some time now. However, this Black Magic Cake seriously rivals the Devils Food Cake and I would even go so far as to say, it might even be better! I came across this Black Magic Cake not long ago, when I was googling for a chocolate cake recipe that was seriously dark, almost black, as I was intrigued at how to get chocolate cakes black in colour without it being a mud cake. I still don't know how, but this Black Magic Cake comes very close to being black in colour.
Apparently, this recipe has been around for decades (found here) and was created by Hersheys back in the 70s. All the reviews (and there are thousands) rave on and on about this recipe so I felt somewhat assured that this cake was going to be delicious. And delicious it was! I made a simple chocolate buttercream frosting, which I knew would be sweet, so I reduced the amount of sugar in the cake itself to balance out the sweetness. As a result, the cake on its own, barely tasted sweet at all.
C's mum enjoys macarons so it was only fitting that I topped the cake with macarons (filled with rose and raspberry white chocolate ganache). It doesn't matter how many times I make macarons, I always find them tricky, and given I don't make them regularly enough, I always forget the little tips and tricks I've learned along the way (so frustrating!). As a result, these macarons were far from my best batch, and were riddled with flaws! Despite this, C's mum enjoyed the macarons and that's all that mattered!
Happy birthday LM!
