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.
More Chocolate Recipes
Sign up for the FREE Give Recipe Newsletter to get the new recipes into your inbox!
And stay in touch with us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram for all the latest updates.
📖 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.
Marian Matchett says
Hi Zerrin ... Thanks for a fabulous recipe, can't wait to try i. I've made a wonderful vanilla magic cake but not a chocolate - this sounds amazing! Also, congratulations on your great website, as well as congrats on your patience in answering questions. I use recipes from all over and simply google conversions, especially ounces to grams or Fahrenheit to Celsius ... I find it's generally a simple task for anyone to do for themselves. Good on you for sharing your great recipes.
Jaejaes says
Yeah I agree, such patients answering questions about conversions. I just google conversions as well.
stefanie sturm says
Can this be made with oil instead of butter/margarine?
Zerrin says
Never tried it with oil, but I think it doesn't work as great as butter or margarine. You know these two hold things better.
genet says
I just made this & it separated out to 3 layers: a light thin bottom, a light custard middle & a chocolate cake like top. It tastes delicious but looks nothing like the picture. I used Hersheys cocoa which is a good quality cocoa. Wish it looked like picture
Carol says
Double this and put in 9x13 pan. Yum!
Rachel says
I have made this several times now and everyone loves it! Thanks so much for sharing such a fabulous recipe!!!!
Kanchank says
Can I use this recipe to make cupcakes instead of a cake?
Zerrin says
Never tried it. I'm not sure how it will turn out in the form of cupcakes since it is a bit jiggly.
Carol Boljević says
Delicious cake! And I don't care for chocolate! I made this cake yesterday before I read all the comments. Though delicious, my cake was lighter because my cocoa was not very dark. I have another in the oven now using a much darker cocoa. I think one of the issues with the egg white is due to the fact that we are used to folding in egg whites. This cake requires the egg whites to be blended in. BTW, the cake was so good, it never had the opportunity to be refrigerated...can you say gobble, gobble, gobble?
Midelaye says
I just made this and it ended up separating into two layers; a yellow custardy layer on the bottom and a dark chocolately layer on top. Any ideas why?
A says
Made this today but mine is much lighter in color. How do I get a rich dark brown color??
Zerrin says
It could be due to the cocoa powder you used. I used a quality unsweetened cocoa powder.
Dawn says
The thing is that a lot of North Americans use the term cocoa for what we in Europe say is hot chocolate powder. It's pure cocoa powder, fry's or Cadbury's.
Lily says
What kind of cocoa did you use, natural or Dutch-processed? Btw love your photos:)
Zerrin says
Just regular unsweetened cocoa powder. I don't know what Dutch-processed cocoa is. We don't have it in Turkey.
Faye says
How long do you cook it for? thanks
Zerrin says
Hi Faye, bake it for 60 min.
Kelly says
Is it 60 minutes no matter the pan size?
Zerrin says
What size are you planning to use? It's really runny before baked, so it need that time. You can check it after 50-60 minutes.
cake-supplies says
Hello Zerrin, I love this recipe and the cake made my mouth water soo Yummyyy. Do you mind if I share your post in my blog? If you want please just say it to me and I will remove it.
Zerrin says
Thanks for asking. No problem as long as you give a link to my post.
Marilyn P Torres says
Thanks for sharing your choco majic custard cake recipe going to bake on sunday for the kids..
Kate says
Hiya
When you say sugar do you mean caster sugar or regular granulated sugar?
K
Zerrin says
Hi Kate, I mean regular granulated sugar.
Critter says
Wow, just took this out of the oven & had to sneak a bite --- wonderful.!.
Seems several folks couldn't get it right. You did a wonderful thing by posting this and I for one do appreciate it. I'm diabetic so used Splenda, and it's great. Thank you for the recipe.
Peace to you Zerrin...
Zerrin says
So happy to hear that the recipe worked for you! Thank you for sharing your experience with us here and letting us know that splenda works fine in this recipe.
Cheers from Turkey!
Erin says
Thank you! So many negative comments, I scrolled looking for positive ones like yours. Mine is in the oven now! I hope I did it right.
Jo says
Hi. How much is a cup in grams? Would be helpful if metric measurements were included so that the rest of the world can have a go too.
Tara says
If the rest of the world could find this recipe, the can use Google.
Dawn says
You can easily convert the measures!