Chocolate Stout Cake

Finally, I had time to make a cake.  This recipe is from Bon Appetit--not anything I invented.  This is called Chocolate Stout Cake from the Barrington Brewery, Great Barrington, MA.  Here's how it went.   Since my county is dry, and no alcoholic beverages are sold here, I had to make a run to Midland for this dark, nasty beer.  It makes you wonder how a cake could be a cake with this stuff in it.

Sift the lumps out of the cocoa.

I added the cocoa to the beer and butter before the butter was completely melted.

 

Here it is--two cups of Guinness stout beer and two cups of butter heating with the cocoa.  It is pretty frothy, because the beer really foamed with the low heat.

While the beer mixture is cooling, beat the eggs with the sour cream until it looks like this.

Here is one layer, bubbles and all.  This looks different than any chocolate cake I have ever baked. 

And here is the Stout cake with the ganache icing.  You can see how thick the icing is, and it is delicious.  I am not sold on the cake.  It is dense, and not overly sweet--that is good, but it has a course texture, sort of rubbery and not tender.  I think there is way too much soda in this cake.  The next time I bake it I will use about half the soda, or maybe just one teaspoon, and see how it turns out.  The recipe called for three 8" cake pans that were 2 inches deep.  My pans were only8 x 1 1/2 inches.  You will need at least 2 inches because there was lots of batter  left over.

Here is the recipe, just the way it was printed in Bon Appetit.  This will serve about 16 or more people.  If you ate 1/12 of this three layer delight your beta cells would be in shock!  This is good for a leisure cup of coffee and good conversation.

CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE

2 C stout beer

2 C butter

1 1/2 C unsweetend cocoa

4 C flour

4 C sugar

1 T soda (I think 2 tsp. would do it, and maybe one, after all the beer has plenty of bubbles for leavening)

1 1/2 tsp. salt if using unsalted butter

4 jumbo eggs

1 1/3 C sour cream

METHOD OF PREPARATION

1.  Preheat the oven 350

2.  Prepare the three cake pans.

3.  Measure the beer into a sauce pan.

4.  Add the butter, and heat on low until the butter begins to melt.

5.  Sift the cocoa into the beer and blend. 

6.  When butter melts remove from heat and cool slightly.

7.  Beat the eggs and sour cream until light and fluffy.

8.  Measure the flour, soda, sugar and salt into a bowl and blend thoroughly.

9.  Add the stout mixture to the egg mixture and beat just enough to combine the two.

10.  Add the flour mixture until it begins to blend.

11.  Get rid of the mixer and fold the batter until blended and no more--don't overmix.

12.  Bake about 30 minutes.

ICING

2 C whipping cream

1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened or semisweet) chocolate

1.  Heat the cream in a heavy saucepan.

2.  Remove from heat and add the chocolate.

3.  Stir until the chocolate is blended, which doesn't take very long.

4.   Refrigerate, and stir from time to time.

5.  Ice the cake when the icing is thick enough to spread.