Guinness Stout Chocolate Cake

Julian Angel of elciervo.co is my inspiration for decorating this Guinness cake. You can also find his videos at YouTube.com/historiasdelciervo. These fresh flowers are all edible. Gerber daisies and mini carnations. The pink drizzle I made with Wilton pink baking wafers melted with cream. You can also use white chocolate, cream and food coloring.

This 14.9 ounce can of Guinness is an almost perfect size. I added 2 tablespoons of water to make the 16 oz.

  

A beautiful rich moist black color cake!

The finished product! Bellisima!

My fitness center friend, Norma Brooks, shared this recipe with me and it has become our favorite family cake. All three of my daughters bake it for their celebrations! It is a beautiful firm rich cake and is worth purchasing 3 large 9 inch x 2 1/2 inch high round baking pans. Using the traditional 9 inch x 1 1/2 inch baking pans works, but you’ll need 5 and decreased baking time. You can make a very tall cake, or freeze 2 or 3 of these smaller layers for a later time. I prefer the 3 larger pans.

Cake Ingredients

2 cups (16 oz) Guinness Stout

1 lb. butter

1 1/2 cups unsweeted cocoa powder (Hersheys Regular or Extra Dark)

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

Frosting Ingredients

2 cups (16 oz) heavy whipping cream

16 oz. bittersweet chocolate (Ghirardelli 60% cacao)

Cake Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the large 2 1/2 inch high x 9 inch wide baking pans. 
• Line buttered pans with parchment paper by drawing a circle using the bottom of the pans as patterns and place circles into the buttered pans.
• Now butter the parchment.
• In a heavy saucepan, bring Guinness and butter just to a simmer. 
• Remove from heat and whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Cool
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer/Kitchen Aid, beat eggs and sour cream just until blended.
• Add the stout-butter-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat briefly at low speed till combined.
• Add flour mixture to batter and mix at low speed just till blended. Use a rubber spatula to thoroughly mix.
• Divide batter into the 3 large baking pans.
• Bake 35-40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Do not overbake.
• Place cakes on cooling racks for 10-20 minutes. Then turn cakes out of pans onto these racks. Remove parchment paper.
• Cool completely. If you leave them overnight, wrap in plastic wrap when cool.

Frosting takes a few hours because this involves cooling, so don’t wait to the last minute to make the frosting.

Frosting Directions

• In a medium size heavy saucepan bring the cream just to a simmer.
• Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate until melted and smooth.
• The frosting will be thin at this point. It thickens as it cools. 
• I use one of two methods for cooling the icing. 1. Pour the icing in a bowl and whisk it within another bowl of ice water until cooled and spreadable. OR 2. Pour the icing into a bowl and place it in the refrigerator with the whisk sitting in the bowl. Check the frosting every 5 minutes and whisk it until it is spreadable. If it’s refrigerated too long it will become hard
• When frosting is spreadable, choose your serving platter and place the bottom layer of cake on it. Place a layer of icing on the cake. Top this with the 2nd cake and frost it’s top. Now layer on the 3rd cake. First frost the sides of this 3 layer giant and finally frost the top of your cake. Voila!
• I find it is best to place thinner layers in between the cakes and reserve plenty of frosting for the sides and top.
• This is a very moist cake that does not need ice cream.  To cut slices, I cut the cake in half. Use one half at a time and cut perpendicular thin slices (but thick enough to maintain it’s shape.) 
• Voila!