Homemade: Chocolate Stout Cake (aka Beer cake)

In honor of Christina's birthday, I felt compelled to make a cake that would bring together things we both loved: stout beer (think Guinness) and chocolate. (Note: I heart chocolate but I have yet to form strong opinions about beer.) I found a recipe at www.epicurious.com with fork ratings that were through the roof. In summary, the recipe called for stout, flour (duh), eggs, butter, cocoa powder, baking power, sour cream and sugar. The creation process was pretty simple: 1) mix 2) bake. The cake itself didn't contain a super strong beer flavor but the presence of the added alcohol was noticeable in the aftertaste. The chocolate factor in the cake alone was also moderate (read: not enough for my tastes). Perhaps cocoa powder on its own just isn't potent enough!

Fortunately, the recipe also called for chocolate ganache icing, for which I was more than willing to accomodate. In case you did not know already, chocolate ganache is just melted chocolate thinned out with heavy cream. The cake with ganache was quite good in the end. Maybe it wasn't even the cake. Maybe ganache is just the secret weapon to making anything delicious. All I know is that anything I bake in the future will probably be dipped or thickly encrusted in this glossy goodness. Viva ganache!

Cake rating: 8.5/10 (Not bad, not bad at all)

Ganache rating: 10/10! (My life is now complete)