ScarlettChocolate Beer Cake
October 18th 2006 12:02
Chocolate Beer Cake
About Stout
Stout is dark beer made using roasted malts or roast barley. There are a number of variations including Baltic porter, sweet stout and Imperial stout.
“Nourishing” and “sweet” stouts became popular in Great Britain in the years following the Second World War, though their popularity declined towards the end of the 20th century – apart from pockets of local interest, such as Glasgow with Sweetheart Stout, and Jamaica with Dragon Stout.
“Stout” still meant only “strong” and it could be related to any kind of beer, as long as it was strong: in the UK it was possible to find “stout pale ale” for example. Later, “stout” was eventually to be associated only with porter, becoming a synonym of dark beer. During the end of the 19th century, stout porter beer gained the reputation of being a healthy strengthening drink, so that it was used by athletes and nursing mothers, while doctors often recommended it to help recovery.
INGREDIENTS
For the cake
50 gm cocoa powder
200 ml stout
110 gm very soft butter
275 gm dark soft brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
175 gm plain flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
For the icing
110 gm icing sugar, sifted
50 gm very soft butter
2 tablespoons stout
110 gm dark chocolate (50-55% cocoa solids)
25 gm walnut pieces, finely chopped
To decorate
8 walnut halves, dusted with cocoa powder
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease 2 20-cm / 8-inch round, 4-cm deep sponge tins and, lightly grease the bases lined with baking parchment.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together, beating thoroughly for 3 or 4 minutes until pale and fluffy.
3. Gradually beat in the eggs, a little at a time, beating well between each addition.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda on to a sheet of baking parchment. Then weigh the cocoa and put it in a separate bowl, gradually stirring the stout into it.
5. Carefully and lightly fold into the egg mixture small quantities of the sifted flour alternately with the cocoa-stout liquid.
6. Then, when both have been added, divide the cake mixture equally between the 2 sponge tins and level it out.
7. Bake the sponges in the centre of the oven for 30-35 minutes. The cakes should be flat on top and feel springy and will have shrunk slightly from the side of the tin. Leave them to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool further, carefully stripping off the base papers.
8. To make the icing, beat the icing sugar and butter together until blended, then gradually add the stout, making sure it is thoroughly mixed in after each addition.
9. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over hot water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
10. Then, when it’s melted, remove the bowl from the water, and carefully fold the chocolate into the icing mixture.
11. Remove a third of the icing to a separate bowl and stir in the chopped walnuts.
12. After all the icing has cooled to a spreadable consistency, sandwich the cake with the walnut icing.
13. Then spread the remaining two-thirds of the icing on top of the cake, using a palette knife.
14. Arrange the walnut halves on top of the cake. Try to be patient and allow the icing to become firm before eating.
**From “The Delia Collection - Chocolate” and “Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”**
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Comment by charles
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I seriously would love to try this recipe.
Charles.