These black brownies are made with black cocoa powder and decorated with super easy royal icing spiderwebs! They're the perfect spooky Halloween treat for both kids and adults!
Since they're naturally colored with black cocoa powder, you don't need any food coloring, and they won't stain your teeth!
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Ingredient Notes
You just need a few ingredients to make these black cocoa brownies for Halloween!
- Black cocoa - Black cocoa is one of my favorite secret ingredients! Black cocoa is just cocoa powder that has been heavily dutched, so it gives you a rich black color but doesn't stain! You don't have to use black cocoa powder for these macarons, but regular cocoa just won't give you the same fun effect, so I highly recommend it! I've bought it from The Cocoa Trader on Amazon and from King Arthur Flour. Both are great!
- Espresso powder - This is one of my most loved kitchen ingredients!! It helps enhance the deep chocolate flavor! Note: espresso powder is NOT the same as instant espresso!! Espresso powder is much more flavorful and more finely ground, making it more suitable for baking. But feel free to leave it out!
How to Make Black Cocoa Brownies
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
Add in the eggs one at a time and whisk each one until fully incorporated and the batter starts to get lighter in color. Then add in the vanilla extract.
Fold in the black cocoa powder, flour, espresso powder, and salt and mix until the batter is smooth and there are no more lumps.
Cut a parchment paper sling slightly smaller than the width of the cake pan and make sure it fits flatly in the bottom. Then lightly spray the bottom and sides of the pan with a vegetable oil based spray (I love Bakers Joy or Everbake). Place you parchment paper sling in the bottom of the pan and smooth it out so that it sticks to the pan spray (you can use metal binder clips to secure it to the pan). After baking you’ll be able to just slide the brownies right out of the pan!
I love all of my USA Pan cake pans because they are extremely sturdy and truly nonstick. However, I still like to prepare my pans to ensure the brownies come out easily.
Smooth the brownie batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out mostly clean.
Note: I always start checking the brownies at about 30 minutes because there is nothing worst that overcooked brownies! You want the center to still just be slightly wet because the brownies will continue to cook as they cool.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan. Then use the parchment sling to remove the black cocoa brownies.
Icing Spider Webs
This super simple icing is great for making all sorts of designs! Since it’s halloween, we went with these fun spider webs but you can use this icing to decorate blondies or brownies all year long!
I use a reusable piping bag fitted with a small round tip (size 3) from my favorite Wilton Decorating Kit. Starting in the corner of your brownie, pipe half-circles of icing (kind of like a rainbow).
Using a toothpick or knife, drag the tip through the icing from the corner though each half circle to create a fun spider-web effect on top of your black cocoa brownies!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Black Cocoa Brownies
Equipment
Ingredients
Brownies
- 1 ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups black cocoa powder
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons espresso powder, optional
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Icing
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar.
- Add in the eggs one at a time and whisk each one until fully incorporated and the batter starts to get lighter in color. Then add in the vanilla extract.
- Fold in the black cocoa powder, flour, espresso powder, and salt and mix until the batter is smooth and there are no more lumps.
- Cut a parchment paper sling slightly smaller than the width of the cake pan and make sure it fits flatly in the bottom. Then lightly spray the bottom and sides of the pan with a vegetable oil based spray. Place you parchment paper sling in the bottom of the pan and smooth it out so that it sticks to the pan spray (you can use metal binder clips to secure it to the pan). After baking you’ll be able to just slide the brownies right out of the pan!
- Smooth the brownie batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out mostly clean. Note: I always start checking the brownies at about 30 minutes because there is nothing worst that overcooked brownies! You want the center to still just be slightly wet because the brownies will continue to cook as they cool.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely in the pan. Then remove using the parchment sling.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk until the icing is smooth and runs just slightly.
- Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Starting in the corner of your brownie, pipe half-circles of icing (kind of like a rainbow). Using a toothpick or knife, drag the tip through the icing from the corner though each half circle to create a fun spider-web effect!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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