Recently he sent me a few emails of beer related recipes. I'm not the biggest beer drinker but I'm all about trying out some funky fresh new dish. Also there is just something about an email with the subject line of "You like making cake and I like eating cake," that appeals to my humorous random spots of vanity. I was empowered! I would make this cake of awesome! If for nothing more than SCIENCE!
Fortunately, a friend of mine had a birthday party this past weekend. Great fun yey birthday! As an epic challenge to myself I decided to try this new cake recipe.The Recipe!
IMPERIAL CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE
Cake
- 2 cups stout (Bell’s Expedition Stout) (I use a big Russian Imperial Stout 15.5% 1.050 FG (homebrew of course)) and I-Jenna-used the only imperial stout at the store I could find.
- 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
- 2 cups whipping cream
- 1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 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. (it smells like delicious beautiful fudge) Cool it a lot; you don't want the heat of the butter and oils to cook the eggs.
- 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. Makes 12 servings.
Commentary
1-This cake is massive! If you're not looking to feed quite a few people I highly suggest halfing the recipe. I used 9 inch pans and the cake was at least 8-9 inches tall. HUGE! Imagine a 9 inch wide cylinder that's 8-9 inches tall and you'll have a rough approximation.
2-It is surprisingly good, in fact it is arguably the best chocolate cake I've ever made!
3-You can taste the beer but in a good way. Normally when I make a recipe that uses a special ingredient I will find myself highly disappointed that I can't taste the magic ingredient....I mean...what's the point of making it with something special if you can't even tell it's in there. Well you can tell with this. It's a rich flavor that complements the chocolate beautifully.
3-The frosting recipe is...Not good. Not good at all. I don't recommend it, but then again I am a frosting snob. Further more, I abhor making frosting. I've made many a batch of frosting in my time, but only once have I ever generated a completely awesome batch by following the recipe exactly. Every other time I've had to add things to it to make it tolerable to my standards. This...I've had worse. It's not very sweet which is good but it's also bitter because bittersweet chocolate was used. Just a bad idea. Go get yourself a better recipe. Also never forget, if you want to frost your whole cake(i.e. between layers, on top, and all the sides) always double your recipe. It's better to have too much than not enough.
What I learned from this experience.
1-A saucepan is a pot, not a high sided frying pan. Theresa and I had an intense chat of wondering about this. At what point does the frying pan turn into the saucepan and after that? When does a saucepan get to be classified as a pot? It's on that list of confusing things that are never actually explained but you're just kind of expected to know. Maybe it goes in this order? skillet-frying pan-saucepan-pot-cauldron.
2-As far as pain-in-the-butt-to-clean kitchen messes go...it's about as bad as cleaning up after a giant peanut butter massacre in your kitchen. I go to wipe up a smallish dab of chocolate and it smears EVERYWHERE! Raaah!
3-Actual Russian Imperial Stouts are difficult to locate. I settled for the closest thing I could find...and Imperial stout! I already forgot what kind it was. I know only that it had a raven on it and that it cost me $6 for the darn bottle. Being the cheapass/brokeass erhem frugal person that I am I was full of mild and brief outrage and grr. However, it was worth it. Soo very worth it. It smelled like fudge and then it smelled like the best cake ever and then it turned into cake so good my grumpy, cake-hating landlord even ate some.
I was proud! And then I decided that the cake was so epic that it couldn't just hang out on it's own.....
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