Chocolate Magic Cake

What’s better than Chocolate Cake?  Chocolate MAGIC Cake, that’s what.  Fudgy base, covered with creamy ganache and topped off with a layer of super soft sponge.  All made out of one batter mix.  How good is that?

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Chocolate Magic Cake

Magic cakes have been around for quite a while now, so many of you will probably be familiar with them.  For those of you who have come across these cakes before, please treat this as a refresher.  For the rest of you, you are in for a treat.

A chocolate magic cake is simply a cake that is baked out of a single batter, but which transforms magically into 3 layers during the baking process.  At the bottom there is the fudgy base, in the middle is a delicious custardy ganache, and it is all topped off with a layer of the lightest of light sponge cake.

I got the inspiration for this recipe from Jo Cooks, who is the queen of Magic Cakes.   I’ve adapted it slightly to reduce the amount of cocoa as I found the chocolate flavour was a little too strong for my taste.  I increased the amount of flour to compensate.  You need 190g (1.5 cups) flour/cocoa in total – you can adjust it to suit your own taste.

How is this possible?

I did some research to find out how this all works.  Spoiler alert … it’s not really magic – it’s all based on science.

Apparently, there are 3 factors that influence the way the chocolate magic cake separates during baking:

• the high ratio of liquid to flour
• the beaten egg whites in the final step
• the lower cooking temperature

Because of the lower cooking temperature, some of the flour has time to settle at the bottom of the cake forming the delicious fudgy base.

Then the liquid and the egg yolks coagulate and set into the creamy custard centre.

Finally, the air in the egg whites causes the rest of the ingredients to rise to the top forming the light and airy sponge cake.

I also discovered that Magic Cakes are believed to have originated in Romania, and are called Prajitura Desteapta.  Google translates this literally as ‘Smart Cake’ which is pretty appropriate.

Ingredients for Chocolate Magic Cake

You can get the complete recipe on the printable recipe card below.

To make a chocolate magic cake you will need the following ingredients.

• 4 large Eggs – separated
• 1 Tablespoon Water
• 150 g (¾ cup) Sugar
• 115 g (1/2 cup or 1 stick) Butter melted
• 150 g (1 1/4 cups) Flour
• 50 g (1/3 cup) Cocoa powder
• 2 cups (1 pint) Milk
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

How to make Chocolate Magic Cake

Start with the eggs

• Separate the eggs and beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. 

Here’s some more magic for you – if the egg whites are stiff enough you should be able to hold the bowl upside down over your head and the egg whites will magically stay in the bowl.

• Beat the egg yolks with the water and the sugar, until the mixture almost doubles in size and turns a pale yellow.  This cake is all about incorporating as much air as possible – so keep beating.

Beat in the butter

• Melt the butter and allow it to cool. Add the vanilla and salt to the butter and slowly drizzle that into the egg mixture, beating all the time.  The consistency of the batter should end up like a crepe or pancake mixture.

Add the flour

• Sift the flour and cocoa and mix 1/3 of it into the cake batter. 
• Repeat this twice more until all the flour has been incorporated and there are no lumps.

Add the milk

Stir in the milk. The mixture will be quite runny at this stage.

Fold in the egg whites

• Finally, fold in the egg whites. 
• You should do this very gently. You don’t need to break down the lumps of egg white. 
• The result should be a batter with small lumps of egg white floating in it.

Bake the chocolate magic cake

• Prepare a 9″ square cake tin by greasing it lightly with a little butter, then sprinkle with a small amount of cocoa powder. This will ensure the cake does not stick to the pan. You could use flour to sprinkle in th pan but then you would end up with a cake with a white bottom!
• Pour the batter into the prepared tin, and place in a pre-heated oven.
• This is a picture of my batter in the cake tin.  I actually think I could have left a little more egg white floating around.  Looking at the picture of my cake though, I think it turned out pretty well.

• The temperature of the oven is important – it should be 150C / 325F, which means you need a longer cooking time than a normal cake.
• A slow cooking time is what makes which the ‘magic’ happen.  It gives most of the flour time to sink to the bottom of the cake and form the ‘fudgy layer’, before the custard sets in the middle. The remaining flour then sets with the eggs to form the sponge cake on top.
• Depending on your oven you will need to bake this cake for anywhere between 45 minutes to 1 hour.  My cake took 50 minutes.

• As the cake bakes, it will look as though the edges are rising and the middle is sunken.  Don’t worry, the middle catches up eventually.  You can see from the picture below what the finished cake looks like.
• The cake will be ready when the sponge topping springs back when you press it with your finger, and if you shake the tin, the cake should not jiggle.

• This is a picture of my finished cake.  It has a bit of a crack on the top, possibly because I may have over-baked it slightly.  If this happens to yours, just cover it with whipped cream – no one will know, and it will still taste amazing.

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Other recipes

You may also like to try these other cakes:

• I did some experimenting with the recipe for the chocolate magic cake and came up with this recipe for easy coconut pie, which I think is even easier to make than the magic cake.
• If you like chocolate desserts, you will love this black forest trifle. This is a creamy chocolate trifle, filled with cherries and cherry brandy.
• Lemon cheesecake is made with only 3 main ingredients – thick Greek yoghurt, condensed milk, and a packet of biscuits. It is made in minutes, and contrary to the name doesn’t contain any cheese at all.
• And no list of cakes and desserts would be complete without reference to a traditional South African Milk Tart. This mouthwatering tart is very similar to an English custard tart and tastes out of this world.

Recipe – Chocolate Magic Cake

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