Product Review: Black Cocoa Powder from Cakers Warehouse

Black frosting. It’s the holy grail of frostings. It can be achieved, but it comes at a cost, usually a weird taste, green teeth, and green.. other stuff.

I had heard of Black Cocoa Powder, used to make what you may have heard of as “Blackout Buttercream”, but alas, I couldn’t get it here is Australia. The few international suppliers I could find that actually stocked it, wouldn’t ship to Oz. Bummer.

When I found out that Cakers Warehouse here in Oz was stocking their own line of Black Cocoa powder, I literally squealed. I bought a bag, ran it through its paces, and here’s my 2 cents.

Got any blacker?

The first thing you’ll notice is its black. Like duh Kerrie, but seriously, it appears to absorb light. Creepy. The very next thing you’ll notice is its the love child of gold leaf and fingerprint powder. I’m pretty sure it levitates on its own. Don’t open the bag and wear white, you were warned.

It smells like cocoa powder, though it has just a faintly more bitter smell, like unsweetened Dark Chocolate, the 80% cocoa kind.

Taste. There really isn’t one. Its a very dark chocolate flavour, kinda like regular cocoa powder, but with no sweet taste at all. I really don’t dig dark chocolate as a rule, so I deferred to my husband, the dark chocolate connoisseur, and he said yep, like 80% cocoa chocolate. Its also important to note that this is pure cocoa powder, there is NO colourings added, that black comes from the cocoa alone. Great for people with food colour allergies, and no green teeth! Woot!

Shake and Bake

I added 2 tablespoons to my Vanilla Sponge cake recipe, which is also how I turn my Vanilla Sponge into a regular chocolate cake, to get an idea of how much you need to get a ‘black’ cake. Turns out, 2 tablespoons will do it!

I honestly didn’t love the taste (Shane from Cakers Warehouse tells me people add regular cocoa powder too to get a rich chocolate taste, so I’ll try that next time), however, my husband and kids LOVED it. My youngest, who normally skips the cake for the frosting, absolutely smashed it. He said it tastes like Oreos, and I don’t like Oreos, so there you go. Add some Basic Buttercream, and you have an Oreo cake. You’re welcome.

Black Out

I added the same two tablespoons of Black Cocoa to some Basic Buttercream, and yeah, super black, it even had a cape. Kidding.

In Buttercream however, it doesn’t taste too flash, so I would suggest either adding the regular Cocoa Powder as Shane suggested, or add flavouring. Still, once again, black Buttercream, no green teeth. Winning.

Should you buy it?

Yep.

This is a must for anyone making Galaxy Cakes, Pixar Cars cakes, or anything where you need really black cake or Buttercream. You would seriously struggle to get Buttercream this black using food colour without splitting it, or making it taste funky. Also recommended for lovers of really dark chocolate and Oreo’s!

Viva La Buttercream x