I tend to like adventurous ingredients and when I hopped over to Smitten Kitchen for a dessert recipe and saw that this cake had beer in it, well my decision was made right then and there. Coincidentally, I”m not a fan of beer and can count on 1 hand the number of beers I’ve consumed in my lifetime, but one commenter at Smitten Kitchen described the nutty flavor the stout added to the cake and I wanted in.

In the case of a “secret” ingredient, I don’t offer up that ingredient right away. I know a few people that wouldn’t touch something that they thought had something “strange” in it. However, Marc took great pleasure in telling everyone that this cake had beer in it. Of course, he mentioned I used Guiness, which is a bit more reassuring than imagining Budweiser in a cake. We brought the cake to a gathering of about 60  and the people that tried it seemed to enjoy it. I personally really loved it and was happy to finally make a cake from scratch that was as moist as cake from a box mix, but had a deeper and more interesting chocolate flavor. Exactly what I’ve been looking for. Do you taste a bit of Guiness? Sure, a bit, but as the commenter said, it just imparts some nuttiness. For the ganache, I substituted instant espresso for instant coffee because I had it on hand and even though I used less, it had a distinct coffee flavor and I was looking to only enhance the chocolate flavor. I’m posting the further altered recipe that I will try next time.

Chocolate Stout Cake

Slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 C. stout (I used Guiness)

1 C.  unsalted butter (2 sticks)

3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed (I used Droste)

2 C. all purpose flour

2 C. sugar

1 1/2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

2 large eggs

2/3 C. sour cream (I used light)

6 oz. good semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)

6 T. heavy cream

1/4 t. instant espresso

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a standard bundt pan well.

2. Bring 1 C. stout and 1 C. butter to simmer in large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and 1 t. salt together in a large bowl to blend.

4. Using a mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine.

5. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed until the white from the flour just disappears. Using a rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.

6. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

7. Transfer the cake (still in the pan) to a wire rack to cool completely. (Deb states it is important to cool completely or the moist cake may not come completely out of the pan.) Once cool you can turn the cake onto the rack for drizzling the ganache.

Ganache

1. Melt chocolate, heavy cream and coffee in the top of a double-boiler (or alternately put a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water) until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally.

2. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake.

This is my new favorite chocolate cake. If you double the recipe, it will make a 3-layer 8″ round cake and I think it would make a seriously delicious chocolate birthday cake. I thought that 2 cups of sugar seemed like too much and was leery about how sweet this would turn out to be. Deb has mentioned on more than one occasion that she doesn’t dig super sweet desserts, so I decided not to change the amount of sugar and I was surprised that I enjoyed the recipe as is. I might try to remove 1/4 C. of sugar in the future, only because 2 cups is quite a bit of sugar and not because this recipe needs to be altered in any way. I’ve had some good bundt cake in my day, but this tops the list.