Oh goodness, they changed the look of blogger. Now i'm kinda lost. Well, this is a recipe post (a re-post really). I've taken one of my favorite cakes and modified it again, this time I halved it and changed it to metric - and baked it for my birthday, of course! Original post here containing original cake recipe.
Chocolate stout cake (my version)
INGREDIENTS
Cake
1 cup or 250 ml stout - I used Guinness
~1 cup or 200g unsalted butter
0.75cup or 90g unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (I bumped it up to ~150-180g/ cake)
2 cups or 240g all purpose flour
~1.5 cups or ~300g raw sugar (or half brown(bastard) and half raw)
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
0.75 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup or 1pot (125g) sour cream
Icing (for 3 cakes)
2 cups or ~450ml cream (heavy cream for whipping)
1lb or 0.5kg bittersweet/pure Belgian chocolate - chopped
PREPARATION
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350F or 180C (200C if using a convection/magnatron)
Butter cake pans (I've used a variety - the original recipe is for a 3-layer cake using 8-inch round pans)
Bring stout and butter to simmer in heavy sauce pan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is (mostly) smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. Beat eggs and cream in another bowl to blend until fluffy. Add choco-stout mixture to egg mixture and beat to combine. Add flour mixture to this and beat briefly to combine. Use rubber spatula to fold mixture until completely combined. If layer cake - divide batter evenly to all pans (and probably make double e.g. the original recipe). Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean (about 45 mins in convection). Transfer to rack, cool 10 mins. Turn cakes out into rack, cool completely.
For icing:
Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Put heat to lowest setting or turn off. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hrs. If making frosting in advance it will get hard in fridge. Let it warm to room-temp and whisk in some milk to get it to the consistency you want (not too runny). Put frosted cake into fridge at least 4 hours (i do overnight) to set frosting.
Enjoy!!
