Jeni's - Blackout Chocolate Cake

Blackout Chocolate Cake - Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Cake Pieces, Extra Bitter Fudge and Chocolate Pieces

Jeni's recently reshuffled their menu for the spring season.  I could not resist and picked up a half of a dozen pints.  Some new flavors and some older flavors which I have not tried before.  I usually buy from Jeni's on Black Friday, so I usually see their fall/winter line when I am selecting pints.  These spring flavors look quite fun.  The first pint is a new chocolate-themed flavor called Blackout Chocolate Cake.  Blackout cake was developed by Ebinger's bakery in Brooklyn in the 1940s in honor of all the mandatory blackouts required by the area around the Brooklyn Naval Yards during the World War II.  Ebinger's bakeries closed in 1972, but recipes for the chocolatey cake live on in cookbooks everywhere.  I have actually reviewed a blackout cake themed pint before from Steve's Ice Cream before.  The review is here.  Jeni's bills this as a 'quadruple threat' of chocolate.  Chocolate in the base, chocolate in the cake pieces, chocolate in a swirl of fudge and chocolate chips are added for good measure.  Sounds chocolatey!

Removing the pint, I am immediately struck by the image of a beautiful swirl of fudge right on top!  It's a nice touch when a brand knows how to make the top of a pint look gorgeous.  The base looks chocolatey as well.  Digging in, there is indeed a lot of chocolate.  The base has a rich chocolatey flavor which is sweet and not at all bitter.  The fudge swirl reminds me of chocolate syrup, but again this is not at all bitter.  No kick in the back of your throat like chocolate syrup sometimes has.  Then there are the chocolate chips.  They are small, but fairly frequent.  They provide the crunch in an otherwise soft pint.  Ironically, the last thing I notice is the namesake chocolate cake itself.  It is soft and chocolatey and quite tasty but it can get lost amid the chips and the fudge swirl.  Somehow, it isn't all too much, though.  I was able to eat the whole pint in one sitting without getting a chocolate-headache.

This is quite a chocolatey pint of ice cream!  Quadruple threat is correct.  There's so much chocolate that I have trouble keeping track of it all in my mouth.  It's good though.  Every brand seems to have a 'chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate' flavor to appease the chocoholics and this pint does a fine job of that.  I liked this flavor a bit more than Steve's blackout cake flavor, but Jeni's is a more premium brand, so that does not surprise me.  The cake pieces can actually get a bit lost in all the other forms of chocolate.  That was not an issue for me, but if cake pieces is what you are looking for, it could be a concern.  Otherwise, enjoy all the chocolate!