Chocolate Magic Custard Cake will blow your mind with its look and taste. One cake batter results in 3-layered cake. Don’t worry about the runny batter, it will bake up perfectly!
This recipe is on the top among all our cake recipes for a reason. Easy to make and wonderfully chocolat-y!
Is there anything more delicious than a chocolate custard cake? Not only is it a favourite among the kids but anyone who loves something sweet and chocolaty will instantly fall in love with this custard cake. Don’t worry if you or your guests go for seconds or thirds, because this recipe will be the talk of the town.
This is a bad-ass chocolate cake! Once you have the first slice, you must know that you are ready for the second or even third! Are you obsessed with chocolate but don’t want one of those dense desserts since you don’t want to gain the pounds you’ve just got rid of? This fool-proof chocolate magic cake is what you need!
What Is Magic Cake?
We wish we could say that a magic cake is just one of Houdini’s amazing culinary tricks, but in reality it is a scrumptious three layered baked custard cake: Fudgy layer at the bottom, chocolate custard in the middle and a sper airy cake layer on the top.
The magic happens when all three layers bake in the same dish without having to layer it yourself. You can make it in different flavors.
It is pretty simple as it contains the basic ingredients for any cake: eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, milk, butter, flour and cocoa powder.
It may not seem like rocket science but baking is a science, and this custard cake will blow your mind with the result you end up with.
What is the magic?
Like we said above, baking is a science; the reason why you get all three layers of the baked custard cake in one pan is the batter is more “liquidy” than most cakes and we bake it at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. This way the custard cake has more time to settle into a custard and sponge layer.
The top layer of the magic custard cake is usually white eggs that are added last to the batter for a fluffy sponge.
Ingredients
If you want to make a custard cake – to be specific, a chocolate custard cake you will need to keep one important thing in mind: the temperature of your ingredients. Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature, especially the eggs. You don’t want the eggs to be too cold or too hot. The bake time for your cake will also differ if your ingredients are not at room temperature when you start making the batter.
Moreover, whether you use confectioner’s sugar or regular sugar, make sure you measure the amount accordingly and add that to the batter. You’ll find that adding milk makes the batter quite thin and liquidy. This is what you should be aiming for, but remember to gently whisk the batter instead of using a stand mixer.
If you think your batter is too lumpy, don’t be discouraged. Usually, if you’ve added all the right amount of ingredients and followed the recipe closely, a little continued mixing can easily bring out that signature liquidy texture that custard cakes are famous for.
Now onto the custard cake recipe.
How To Make Chocolate Magic Cake
As mentioned earlier, start out by making sure your ingredients are at room temperature. Follow the usual routine of preheating your oven before you go ahead and start making the batter. Be sure to heat up your oven to 320F (160C).
Now that your oven is ready, you can proceed with the batter. Start out by separating the egg whites into a bowl. Ideally, the four eggs you use should be at room temperature. Once separated, go ahead and whisk the egg whites. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to keep whisking the egg whites until you start seeing white peeks forming.
Bring out the bowl with the egg yolks that you previously separated. Add the vanilla extract and sugar into the bowl. Begin mixing these three ingredients gently until you see a creamy texture start to form. Next, add melted butter and keep mixing. Once the butter is mixed, add flour and unsweetened cocoa powder into the mixture. Gradually begin adding milk to this while simultaneously whisking the batter.
Now, fold in the egg whites (one third at a time) and continue mixing gently. Be careful with it though, you don’t want to mix the batter too much. Just stir it enough so that all the ingredients are combined and the mixture is runny in texture. Transfer this runny batter into your baking pan and bake for 60 minutes in the oven.
Don’t be alarmed if the centre of the cake is jiggly. In fact, a jiggly centre is precisely what you should be aiming for. This jiggly centre is pretty common for custard desserts so give yourself a pat on the back for coming this far. After the cake is baked, let it rest for about half an hour. Let the cake cool down and reach room temperature. Only then transfer it to your fridge to chill. Now you can slice it up and enjoy it.
A magic cake recipe can go wrong if you don’t let it cool to room temperature, and then let it chill for at least an hour. Otherwise, it will be so runny that you won't be able to slice it.
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📖 Recipe
Chocolate Magic Custard Cake
Video
INGREDIENTS
- 4 medium eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups sugar
- 110 g butter melted and cooled
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder unsweetened
- 2 cups milk lukewarm
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 320F (160C).
- Grease a 8x8 inch baking pan and line it with parchment paper.
- Separate egg whites and yolks.
- Beat egg whites in a bowl until stiff and put aside.
- Whisk egg yolks, vanilla extract and sugar until creamy.
- Add melted butter and mix for half a minute.
- Add the flour and unsweetened cocoa powder. Mix with a whisk until incorporated well.
- Pour the milk gradually and continue whisking.
- Add in the egg whites, one third at a time and gently stir with a whisk. Don't overmix, just stir until combined.
- Pour this runny batter into the baking pan and bake for 60 minutes.
- The centre of the cake will still be jiggly when removed from oven.
- Let it cool for about half an hour and then remove from the pan. When it reaches room temperature, chill it at least for an hour.
- Slice it in the size you like and dust with powdered sugar right before serving. You can garnish it with fresh fruit too.
- Keep it in refrigerator until you finish it all.
NOTES
NUTRITION
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ashley Calder says
Hi, does anyone have any thoughts about the size of pan to be used here? I have so many baking pans I can't fit them in my cupboards, and I don't have anything that is even close to 17 cm by 30 cm. Also, how deep should the pan be? It's hard to tell from the photo exactly without anything else to put it in perspective, but the squares look like they are prob 1.5-2 inches high??
Thanks!
Zerrin says
I used a 12X7-inch pan with a depth of 2 1/2 inches. This cake doesn't rise, so just put it in a pan that suits the amount of mixture.
Heidi says
110 g butter is about 8 tablespoons of butter or one stick (1/2 cup)
Yes, I was wondering why the rest of the ingredients were in cups and then there was this gram entry.
Zerrin says
Well, we use gram as a measurement for butter here in Turkey, That's why. But you are right, I should have given the cup or tablespoon equavelent to it. Thanks for giving it here.
Jonetta Adams says
110g butter, melted?! What is 110g???
Zerrin says
110 is equavelent to 4 ounces butter. Melt it first in a pan, let it cool and then add in the mixture.
Dawn says
Just look it up on Google?
Lisa Bauhan says
I followed this exactly, and it looked nothing like the one in the picture. After adding the milk, I "gently" stirred in the egg whites. It became a gloppy mess. When I poured it into the pan you could see the big lumps all over, and the batter was a greyish-brown. When it was finished baking, it looked like bread that had been soaked in liquid. It would help to have pictures of what the batter should look like as it's being assembled.
Zerrin says
Hi Lisa, sorry to hear that the recipe didn't work for you. I really don't know why since I make this cake quite often with this recipe. It is supposed to be very runny before putting it in the oven, almost as runny as milk. I don't know why yours was greyish, could it be because of the cocoa powder you used? I will take the photo of the batter next time for you and update this post.
bonnie says
I had the a simiular problem with the recipe. Mine wasn't greyish but you can see the egg whites lumps. It is runny. But it doesn't look like your picture. The color turn out just like yours but the egg whites didn't mix up very well. Were you suppose to use a beater and beat the egg whites in the wet mixture?? Just wondering.
Julia says
I must have over mixed the egg whites or something, as my mixture was also full of lumpy egg white. It was not grey but it was not runny. It is in the oven now. Am hoping it turns out okay.
Crystal says
I had the same problem as the other commenters. Are we perhaps beating the egg whites too stiff? Or are we supposed to incorporate the beaten egg whites more thoroughly into the chocolate mixture?
Would you mind updating this recipe, perhaps with pictures for each step? Or maybe clarify how the eggs are supposed to be beaten? Should they be stiff peaks or soft peaks? Or when we mix it in, should we mix until completely combined?
Megan says
I have to say, I followed this exactly and the batter was very runny and nice. I beat my egg whites by hand so I don't think it was as thick as stiff peaks, but it ended up making the batter perfect.
Ruth says
Same problem with my effort regarding the egg whites being like chunks of islands floating in a sea of chocolate milk. Mine is still cooling, but the lumps stayed on top. I beat the egg whites until stiff, and so maybe that is the problem. What is your definition of stiff?
Susan says
I would like to know how many calories this has?
Donna Weber says
Any idea how to make this at high altitude? Looks amazing but I don't want to waste the ingredients. Thanks!!
Zerrin says
Never had an experience about baking at high altitude. I hadn't even heard about it until I received your comment. Sorry.
Sheena says
What is 110g of butter?
Ashley Calder says
Sheena, a block of butter weighs 454 g (1 pound), so 110 g of butter is approximately 1/4 of a block of butter, or 1 stick if you are in the US.
Zerrin says
Thanks Ashley for clarifying!
rdrakester says
so why isn't the butter listed as 1/2 cup like the other ingredients?
Kate says
Could you sub a gluten free flour you think? As it's a fairly dense cake and usually the trouble with GF is falling. Any thoughts on this? Coconut flour maybe?
Julia says
I just baked it with gluten free plain flour. Just added 2/3 cups of it. Cake looks amazing, taste even better 😉
Zerrin says
Very easy too, isn't it? So happy to hear that you love it!
Amy Bainbridge says
How many eggs??
Zerrin says
Thank you Amy for asking! There was an issue about the recipe plugin and I must have deleted some ingredients by accident when trying to fix it. I've just added them.
Chris Long says
How much milk?
Zerrin says
It's written in the recipe Chris.
Donna Coy says
Your recipe is missing/omitted several ingredients that are mentioned in the instructions : Egg (amount of eggs to usein this recipe) & Vanilla/Vanilla Powder (amount to use in this recipe).
Zerrin says
Thank you Donna! I was trying to fix the recipe plugin and I must have made a mistake when pasting the ingredients. I've just added the missing items.
Diana says
What type of extract? The recipe doesn't say. Thanks!
Zerrin says
Hi Diana! It is vanilla extract. I've corrected the recipe. Thanks for the heads up!
Azu says
Wow! These cakes look amazing, they just made me crave some chocolate
Autumn says
This looks amazing!
Liz says
WOW! Your bars look amazing, Zerrin!!! I must make them for my chocoholics 🙂
Zerrin says
Thanks Liz! This cake is really a hit for chocolate lovers!
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup says
This looks incredible. Thanks so much for the recipe. Pinning it now!
Maggie Unzueta @ Mama Maggie's Kitchen says
HURT ME! I need this N O W! Sharing. 🙂
benito says
What's the biggest size pan, you can use?