Magic Cake seems to be the internet food trend of the moment. If you follow food blogs, you’ve heard of it. Even my brother knows what it is. He told my mom about it, and she has been dying to try it. And who am I to deny my mother, who has so patiently put up with me all these years? So last time I went home to visit, I made a magic cake.

The Magic

It’s called a magic cake because when you put it in the oven it’s a dish of a single very liquidy substance, but during baking it miraculously separates itself into 3 solid layers. I have to admit that is pretty magical. Though it’s not quite as simple as people make it sound. The process is actually fairly tedious.

First you sift together flour and cocoa powder and set aside.

Then you whip together egg whites and vinegar until you have a stiff-peaked meringue. Set aside that as well.

Beat together egg yolks and sugar.

Then beat in melted butter, espresso, and vanilla extract.

Mix in the flour/cocoa mixture until evenly incorporated.

Gently beat in milk until well mixed.

Fold in the meringue.

Pour the surprisingly soupy mixture into a parchment lined pan. Bake at 325 degrees F for 50 minutes. The magic cake should be slightly jiggly when you shake it.

Allow the cake to cool completely, then dust with powdered sugar and observe the magic. It has in fact solidified into 3 separate layers, which I have to admit I was skeptical about when I put that liquidy pan into the oven.

While I will acknowledge that the process and presentation is pretty cool, I also have to say that this is probably the first and last magic cake I will ever make. As you can see, it was a lot of steps to make this magic happen, which people seem to forget when talking about this cake. It also honestly didn’t taste all that magical. The bottom layer had a gelatinous texture I couldn’t get past, and this certainly wasn’t the tastiest chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten. I don’t think it was just the recipe I used, because I searched around and it was pretty comparable to many other magic cake recipes I found out there. Oh well – it was fun to try, but I won’t be doing it again.