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| It tastes way better than it looks. The decorating went very bad. |
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 60 minutes @ 350 degrees (not including wait time)
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 cup stout or porter beer (I used Guinness)
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (plus additional for greasing the pan)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Bailey's
Directions:
Cake:
Cook beer and butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat until butter is completely melted. Whisk in cocoa powder and sugars. Take off heat and allow it to come to room temperature (took mine about 1 hour). --- Use this wait time to grease your 8 or 9 inch springform pan with butter and line the bottom with parchment paper.
*Preheat oven before starting this next step* Beat sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract in your electric mixer. Mix until very well combined. Add the cooled butter-beer mixture and whisk together. In another bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter-beer mixture and whisk until it just comes together. Pour into the springform pan and give it a few short drops onto the countertop. This will shake out any air pockets within the batter. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Run a knife (I used a spatula) around the edges to separate the cake from the pan and remove the ring from the springform pan. Spread a generous amount of frosting on the top of the cake.
Frosting:
Beat cream cheese in electric mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar and Bailey's. Beat until smooth.
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| Baker's sugar on the left. Regular granulated sugar on the right. |
A quick side note: You can use regular granulated sugar in this recipe but your cake will not be as fluffy. Baker's sugar (ultra fine sugar - Caster's sugar) produces fluffier cakes. It is also used more frequently in making meringues. As you can see in the picture there is a big difference in texture.
I love theme baking. Making delicious treats for specific holidays is so- much fun. I decided this year I wanted to make a "grown-up" dessert. Man did I hit the jackpot! :) I have never baked with alcohol, but I cooked once with beer in a crock pot and hated the smell. I do not like the taste of beer so I was pretty hesitant to make this cake, but it did sound and look really really good. I am a sucker for lots of vanilla and dark brown sugar. When I am baking or cooking I try not to let my dislikes in food hinder what I will make. Ohhh... expect bananas. I do not like bananas. Ick!!! Originally this recipe called for regular cream cheese frosting, but I knew I wanted a Bailey's cream cheese frosting. Boy, was I right. The frosting is what puts this cake over the top.
The hardest part of this recipe was waiting for the beer-butter mixture to cool. I didn't realize there was wait time involved. It took my mixture about an 1 hour to cool. It was torture! :) I started preheating the oven like the original recipe said, but then waited until I was going to start mixing the sour cream and other ingredients together. That way my oven didn't stay on all that time doing nothing. I also prepared the flour, baking soda, and salt together during the wait time and set it aside.
Finally, once I was able to add everything together I baked my cake. It took about 55 minutes. I checked it at 50 minutes and my tooth pick came out with some cake. Another 5 minutes and it was done. Once it cooled I put the frosting on. Man oh man was it good. You can add as much or little Bailey's as you would like to the frosting. I found 6 tablespoons was what I liked. Spread all of the frosting on the cake. This is a very thick cake so the frosting should be thick. Otherwise, you get an uneven ratio of cake to frosting and no one likes uneven ratios. :)
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| Chocolate Guinness Cake fresh out of the oven. YUM! |
I stored my cake in the refrigerator and then my husband took it to work with him for Saint Patrick's Day. I didn't get to try the cake, but I had some brownies left over from the day before so I put some frosting on a piece and about died. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
I can't wait to make this cake again. Besides the wait time it was super simple. Maybe next time I will do cupcakes for a football party. Either way I know it will be tasty. Now, off to think up my next themed yummy treats for Easter. Yay!
(Cake: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chocolate_guinness_cake/)
(Frosting: http://www.closetcooking.com/2009/03/chocolate-stout-cake-with-baileys-cream.html)
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