Bake
Black Cake Cookies
Popular on Food52
9 Reviews
Ro R.
February 11, 2025
While mine do not look like the website photo, they are tasty as all get out. I just ate 6 of them. I used a little maple syrup instead of the browning. Yum.
Jillian A.
February 11, 2025
I'm sure they "don't look like the website photo" because you didn't use browning, they will be a much lighter color without it (and that's ok!) but i'm so glad you found them just as tasty! maple syrup is a nice choice bc it will deepen in flavor even with the short cooking time, awesome job, Ro!
dickensthedog
December 22, 2024
Well, here’s my review, made without the benefit of requested advice since no one answered the two questions that i posed over the past few days. I added a few ingredients to the batter to more closely mirror my black cake recipe. The batter tasted nuanced and wonderful. It was refrigerated for three days, awaiting advice. The batter this morning had lost all of its nuanced flavor, and the baked cookies tasted flat. I am not one to serve mediocre food to friends and family, so I blitzed the cookies in the food processor into crumbs and used them as an ingredient in the stellar hermit cookie recipe I requested and got from a bakery in North Carolina many years ago which is based on cake crumbs.. Thank goodness it was a save. The hermits are great.
yvonne D.
December 6, 2024
Is it okay to use Grace's burnt sugar browning with Carmal flavoring?
Jillian A.
December 6, 2024
Hi Yvonne, I've never seen Grace with caramel seasoning, maybe it is caramel coloring? Grace is definitely the way to go, so I would say yes it's perfectly fine, just be sure there are no ingredients like garlic or onion included as some brownings like Gravy Master have. Happy baking!
li
November 26, 2022
These were last year's favorite cookies with the family and they're about to be made again. I'd never tried Black Cake but listening to Play Me A Recipe convinced me these would be wonderful. Not having access to burnt sugar browning, I used blackstrap molasses as per a couple of Caribbean websites. The cookies were absolutely delicious - no other alterations were made. Easy enough to make although it was surprising how many times i had to stop and replay the podcast to follow along. Glad to see the printed recipe!
Jillian A.
December 6, 2024
Hi Li! I'm so glad you and your family enjoyed this, I hope you enjoy them again this year and wow! I'm glad the Black Strap molasses worked well. If you try again you can skip the browning if it's still tough to find, it adds the dark color since the cookies cut down on the time it usually takes to develop with the cake, but it doesn't effect the taste noticeably! Enjoy.
dale.mcneill
December 19, 2021
I heard this on Play Me a Recipe and immediately knew I wanted to make it. I couldn't find browning in San Antonio, so I had a friend ship me some from Queens (which is where I moved from). Every year in Queens I would try Black Cake from many friends and at many church fairs in December. I knew that when I tried the cookies, I would want them to be very dark. So I patiently waited on the mail.
Then it was a little hard to find currents. Who knows this year? The oddest things are hard to find. I already had a nice port on hand and the very white rum suggested (I have a nice selection, as that is my favorite spirit.)
I followed the recipe exactly as written. The brown sugar I had was dark brown, so I used that.
Completely delicious! Soft, a little chewy, more delicate than you might imagine. I made mine with the closest size cookie scoop I had to 3 tablespoons, knowing it was bigger. I ended up with 18 gorgeous cookies.
You do get the flavor of the Black Cake so nicely.
I'll for sure be making these again and again, without making a single change (though I might make the small investment in the scoop that is the recommended size, as having more of these could only be a good thing.)
Then it was a little hard to find currents. Who knows this year? The oddest things are hard to find. I already had a nice port on hand and the very white rum suggested (I have a nice selection, as that is my favorite spirit.)
I followed the recipe exactly as written. The brown sugar I had was dark brown, so I used that.
Completely delicious! Soft, a little chewy, more delicate than you might imagine. I made mine with the closest size cookie scoop I had to 3 tablespoons, knowing it was bigger. I ended up with 18 gorgeous cookies.
You do get the flavor of the Black Cake so nicely.
I'll for sure be making these again and again, without making a single change (though I might make the small investment in the scoop that is the recommended size, as having more of these could only be a good thing.)
Jillian A.
December 6, 2024
Dale I'm delighted that these were a hit for you! If you ever are stuck without currants please feel free to add the difference in prunes or raisins, it's very forgiving, even I don't use currants every year. I hope you continue to enjoy these and I'm glad they reminded you of Queens!
See what other Food52ers are saying.