Monday, November 20, 2006
Adventures in Chocolate
About the cake... I once heard that chocolate and Guinness were good partners, and I recently set out to create the ultimate Guinness Chocolate Cake. I tracked down 4 recipes--American, Irish, and Australian--and took the best of each to make my cake in order to distract myself from the heinous episode of Lost that was on TV. Not that that narrows it down for you, since they're all heinous this season. Heinously boring.
Annnyway, here it is. The bite of the stout really brings out the cocoa and makes it seem much darker than it is, without the thick heaviness of Devil's Food. It's quite a light cake, and has been well received. The good news for you is, I've made this 5 times now and road tested it, so it is perfected. See below for the "exciting" story.
Chocolate Guinness Cake
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
10 ounces Guinness stout
3/4 cup natural cocoa
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Icing
6 ounces dark chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the sugars and butter until thick. Blend in the eggs and vanilla. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the cocoa and Guinness, letting them sit to let the foam subside and then whisking again. In another bowl, mix or sift together the flour and baking soda. Then, slowly add alternating amounts of the stout/cocoa and flour/soda into the large bowl, mixing thoroughly each time until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake for 40 minutes.
Prior to icing, cool until just warm. Melt together the butter and chocolate in either a double boiler or a bowl sitting on a small pot of simmering water. Stir in the cream at the end and mix thoroughly. Spoon the icing over the cake until covered completely. Place the cake in the fridge, uncovered, until the icing hardens.
Cooking Notes
About the icing: I prefer dark chocolate and think the hard chocolate shell really adds to it. But, I am a chocoholic. I also saw several other icings used online including cream cheese.
About the cake pan: I used 3 different pans during my trials-- a 9" springform, a regular round cake pan, and a fancy Bundt pan. The fancy Bundt didn't work quite as well because the cake is fairly light and soft and didn't come out as easily as with the flat pans. I also used parchment paper in the bottom of the springform pan and that made removal simpler.
Things I Did not Learn the Hard Way...maybe
*TIP: Use a bowl big enough for the butter/sugar, as you'll be adding all ingredients into that one. Unless your idea of a good time is a shirt covered in Guinness and cocoa, in which case you should use a small bowl.
*TIP: Convert all measurements to one scale. Don't use metrics and American unless you want to give yourself a headache mid-cake.
*TIP: If you only have one measuring spoon, ensure that it is in fact a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon so that your baking soda content is not 5 times the required content, ruining cakes 2 and 3 and requiring an emergency trip to the grocery store for certain ingredient refills followed by hurriedly making cakes 4 and 5 with the kind and understanding assistance of the birthday haver that you may happen to be making the cake FOR because you are now frazzled and have been standing on your feet for 3 hours.
*Seriously, do not mess with the baking soda and flour ratio.
