St. Patrick's Day: Chocolate Stout Cake

Bon Appétit (September 2002)

We'd been craving a rich, gooey chocolate cake for a while. Our St. Patrick's Day dinner gave us the chance to try this amazingly delicious Chocolate Stout Cake, which we found in an old back-issue of Bon Appétit.

To cut to the chase, this should be your go-to chocolate cake from now on, regardless of the season. The stout adds this fantastically dark, malty earthiness to balance the sweetness of the sugar and chocolate. And the stout helps the cake stay rich and moist.

In short, drop everything you're doing right now. Run to your home. Make this cake.

Two things are probably worth mentioning:

1. While making the cake doesn't take all that long (time for mixing plus 40 minutes to bake plus cooling time), we failed to notice that the icing requires at least 2 hours to cool. So our icing only got about 45 minutes in the fridge -- actually, we threw it in the freezer to help it along. 

So we probably ended up with a thinner icing -- more like a glaze -- than the recipe intends. But honestly? We'd probably do it that way again.  It tasted great, and the icing was thin enough that we just poured it over the top of the cake and let it glop down the sides. There's really no need for a perfectly spread frosting here. This just isn't that kind of cake.

2. This recipe makes three layers of cake. But as you can see from our photo, we only used two. A third layer would have been just too much. So, sadly, we just discarded the third layer after it cooled. If you want, you might cut the cake recipe in half or in two-thirds.

Or maybe you want a ridiculously tall chocolate cake. We won't judge you.

Chocolate Stout Cake
Bon Appétit (September 2002)

The dark beer known as stout gives this cake an intense, not-too-sweet flavor.

Servings: Makes 12 servings.

Ingredients
Cake
2 cups stout (such as Guinness)
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream

Icing
2 cups whipping cream
1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
Preparation
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. Butter paper. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.

Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake.

Comments

And I want this cake too!!

[a. grace]

i'm sorry, did you say that you DISCARDED THE THIRD LAYER? oh, how it pains me to hear that. i guess i'll have to let it slide because your end result looks just luscious.

[Zach]

@a.grace: I know! I hated to do it! But a) the cake wouldn't have fit under the glass dome we have.

And b) we probably gained 5 pounds each as it was -- the last thing we needed was another layer!

--Zach

[vanessa]

good god. must veganize. must devour.

[kristine]

a chocolate beer cake? good god, you have made the perfect food. i will have to make it for my Very Irish future-in-laws in a transparent attempt to assimilate.

[kristina]

holy. cow.

[eviedish]

This just may be a dessert worthy of replacing my husbands beloved beer milkshake.

[Mark Boxshus]

Oh Zack..........instead of throwing out that third layer......wrap it twice in Saran, vacuum pack it and freeze it for those nights you need a sweet, chocolate fix and have nothing left. Forgive me.....but that's sacrilege my friend. Save it and you'll never regret it.......believe me.............Mark