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.
April says
I just made this tonight and it is YUMMY. Tastes like hot chocolate!
A. Sav says
I'm willing to bet that most people having technical difficulties with this recipe are overlooking one key and important thing, your notations of "room temperature" throwing cold milk or cold eggs into this kind of dish can screw it up since it's basically a custard. You want everything the same temperature so it cooks evenly, separation happens when one ingredient sets before the others can catch up. Just hypothesizing, I am a professional pastry chef and will give this recipe a go myself and post the results.
Zerrin says
Thank you for sharing your opinion here. Well, I'm not a professional chef and I'm just sharing what has worked for me. I'm really sorry for those who had bad experience with this recipe. But sometimes I just don't know what the problem is. You could be right about your hypothesis on "room temperature". Would love to hear the result of a professional pastry chef here. Hopefully it helps others too.
Prathibha Pillai says
Thanks for posting this recipe. I did try it though the after product came in layers where the custard was followed by a rubber like layer. Could it be I made a mistake in folding in the egg whites or was it kept in for the entire 60 minutes and not taken out at 50 minutes. Your advice on this would be much appreciated.
Zerrin says
Sorry for my late reply. My son is sick and I was busy with him. As for your question, if you exactly add the egg whites as described in the recipe, it's probably because of the baking duration. Your oven might bake faster, so 50 minutes would be better.
Wendy says
Very disappointing. Picture does not represent actual recipe. It is very light brown. Not worth washing the dishes. I much prefer hot fudge cake that makes a cake and pudding and is dark chocolate.
Cosma says
My friend and I made this cake, and I'm sorry to say it turned out horrible. It makes a cake that is a lot like a chocolate flan. Very eggy, and not at all like the gooey, delicious photos. I used quality unsweetened cocoa, and followed the temperature instructions. However, it came out greenish in color in the middle. Sorry to say I definitely won't be making it again.
Zerrin says
Very sorry to hear that. Could that be the egg whites? They should be stiff before adding it into the batter. And you shouldn't overmix it, just stir a few times. Maybe I must add this warning in the instructions. I hate when a recipe doesn't work for me too. Sorry again for the result you had.
jfe says
Custard does have a flan like texture and eggy flavor. The recipe is called "Chocolate Custard cake" so I would assume the flavor is slightly eggy, like custard is.
Ruth Ann says
Would this work with white chocolate? That would be delicious!!
Zerrin says
Hi Ruth, never tried it with white chocolate. I used dark cocoa powder in this recipe, so I'm not sure how we can make it with white chocolate. Would love to hear the result if you try.
burcu says
merhaba
kek mükemmel görünüyor. acaba türkçe tarifinin de olduğu bir adresiniz var mı ?
teşekkürler
ashli says
just like to check is this really bake for 60 minutes?
Zerrin says
Yes, it bakes for 60 min.
Linda Lamb says
You mentioned in the blog that now you wanted to try other flavors such as cherry and strawberry. Have you tried any others yet? I think cherry would be fantastic.
Zerrin says
No Linda, I haven't tried them yet. I'd love to hear the result if you try first.
Lucia says
What kind of sugar you added to it? Granulated or powdered? 🙂
Zerrin says
I used granulated.
Diana Chang says
Hi! Your pictures look amazing. Is it possible to half this recipe if I'm making it for less people? Would the results be the same?
Zerrin says
Of course you can use half of it. You should use a smaller baking dish then.
Diana Chang says
awesome, Thanks! Forgot to ask, for the melted butter, is it melted into liquid form or soft room temperature?
Zerrin says
Melt it into liquid form and let it cool.
Jovana says
In that case should I bake it 60min or less?
Zerrin says
Hi Jovana, the batter is really runny so I'm not sure about the baking duration as I've never halved the recipe. If the depth of the pan is the same (mine is 6cm), I think it needs to be baked 60 minutes. I'd love to hear your result when you have a chance to try it.
Jaia says
Hi, I was really excited to make these yesterday. Made them and they were pretty gross to be honest. They had a flan like texture which was quite bland and were light in colour. None of the family really liked them at all. Would definitely not make them again. Lovely pictures though!
patty says
wow, I can't believe these comments, I'm super glad I never shared a recipe online lol! I'm thinking there are a lot of people who are just not following the recipe correctly or are not good bakers. Geesh! Making right now and even if they don't turn out, I would never comment like this on someone's blog.
Zerrin says
Hi Patty! Well, I love to hear people's thoughts about my recipes even if they are negative. I try to help people here, so all comments are so valuable for me. I try to understand what's wrong and what could be done so that everyone can get the same good result. Such things improve my cooking and baking skills too. So if you aren't happy with the recipe, please feel free to share your thoughts here. Cheers!
Lori says
I agree, I cant believe people. My mom made the chocolate recipe, it's beautiful and delicious. I'm going to give it a try in cupcakes, who knows it might work!!
Carolynn says
I was excited to make this cake, but the finished product looked NOTHING like your picture. It doesn't taste bad , but looked similar to bread pudding. Also had a problem FOLDING the egg whites into a batter that is very nearly a liquid.
Rochelle Manel says
Do you think that a gluten free flour, something like coconut flour could be substituted as I have wheat allergy?.....
Nicola says
Just made this today. Read through the recipe and thought "It can't be that simple!" but it turned out perfectly! Thank you so much! It's incredible. 🙂 Will have to hunt down a darker cocoa powder however as mine didn't turn out as dark as yours, unless there's a way to incorporate my favourite dark chocolate into it somehow without messing with the chemistry of the recipe too much
.