Oreo Crispy Chocolate Sandwich Cake with Black Sugar Powder | A Cocoa Slab

Three textures, stacked. A cocoa sponge soft enough to press, a cream whipped just past pourable, and a dark chocolate shell that cracks under a fork before the fork reaches the cake. The Oreo crumb on the outside is not decoration. It gives the shell something to hold and something to break against.

Traditional black sugar powder runs through both the sponge and the cream. It is milled fine enough to fold into a batter without grit and it carries a molasses depth that plain sugar cannot reach behind cocoa.

The sugar

Traditional black sugar powder, 古法黑糖粉, is black sugar milled to a fine powder. In the sponge it dissolves into the yolk batter without weighing it down. In the cream it does something more interesting: 10g is enough to give a plain whipped cream a caramel undertone that reads as depth rather than sweetness, which is what you want against a dark chocolate shell.

Cocoa is bitter and unforgiving of thin sugars. Black sugar meets it where it is.

Made with Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder 古法黑糖粉 300g. Heritage black sugar, finely milled. Shop it here.

Recipe

Serves: 1 slab, about 6 slices Prep: 40 minutes Cook: 25 minutes, plus chilling Total: about 2 hours

Ingredients

Cocoa sponge

• 40g corn oil
• 15g cocoa powder
• 65g milk
• 45g cake flour
• 5 egg yolks
• 5 egg whites
• 5g lemon juice
• 40g Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder 古法黑糖粉

Cream

• 250g whipping cream
• 10g Ship Brand Traditional Black Sugar Powder 古法黑糖粉

Shell

• 70g dark chocolate
• 20g coconut oil
• 30g crushed Oreo
• Crushed hazelnuts, to finish

Directions

1. Warm the 40g corn oil and whisk in the 15g cocoa powder until smooth and glossy.
2. Whisk in the 65g milk, then sift in the 45g cake flour and fold until no dry flour remains.
3. Beat in the 5 egg yolks one at a time until the batter is smooth.
4. In a clean bowl, whip the 5 egg whites with the 5g lemon juice, adding the 40g black sugar powder as you go, until the meringue holds a soft peak. The lemon juice stabilises the foam.
5. Fold the meringue into the cocoa batter in three additions, keeping the air in.
6. Bake, then cool completely before cutting. A warm sponge will tear.
7. Whip the 250g cream with the 10g black sugar powder until it holds its shape.
8. Split the sponge, fill generously with the cream, and chill until firm.
9. Melt the 70g dark chocolate with the 20g coconut oil to make the coating. Coat the chilled slab, then press the 30g crushed Oreo and the hazelnuts onto the outside before the chocolate sets.

Notes

• Separate the eggs cold and whip the whites at room temperature. Any yolk in the whites and the meringue will not hold.
• Coconut oil is what makes the shell crack rather than bend. It sets harder than butter at fridge temperature.
• Chill the filled sponge before coating. Warm cream under warm chocolate will slide.

To finish

Cut it with a hot dry knife, wiping between slices, and the layers stay honest. Black sugar powder is worth keeping for anything cocoa-forward, from brownies to hot chocolate, wherever plain sweetness would disappear behind the bitterness.

Ship Brand (帆船牌) is the retail line of Yuen Tung Sugar Factory Industrial Company Limited. Sugar refined in Hong Kong since 1987. Shop the collection.