Chocolate Coffee Stout Cake

…and here’s what happened to the Flying Fish Exit 13 Chocolate Stout…

I decided to make  a decadent chocolate cake with coffee buttercream, ganache filling and topped with chocolate shavings. Now what I’m about to tell you may seem like a strange thing to write but I really want you to know how I think this cake turned out.

The original purpose of making a stout cake was to make the chocolate flavor stand out against the sweet taste of cake. I have to admit here that although the cake was delicious and chocolaty, the sweetness of the coffee buttercream did take away from the chocolate flavor. If you don’t mind this, by all means follow the recipe. If I were to make this again though, I’d skip the coffee buttercream and go chocolate ganache all the way!

A note about the recipe: I’ve modified this recipe from my cupcake recipe so it was difficult to gauge how much batter I was going to get. I thought it was the right amount to make a double 8 inch round cake. I ended up having enough extra to either make a third layer or make about 8-10 cupcakes. (I made the cupcakes.)

For the Cake:
2 cups sugar
3 cups cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter
1 cup cocoa powder
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
12 oz chocolate stout
2 eggs
2 yolks
1 1/3 cup buttermilk

Butter two 8 inch pans and cover the bottoms with parchment paper. Sift the sugar, flour, salt, and baking soda together. Warm the butter, cocoa powder, chocolate and stout in a double boiler until the chocolate is melted. Mix together the eggs, yolks, and buttermilk. In an electric mixer, add the the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Then add the egg mixture and mix until combined.

Pour the batter to fill the pans halfway and bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center. Cool completely.

For the coffee frosting:
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
4 tsp espresso powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Dissolve the espresso powder in a tablespoon or two of water and add it to mixture along with the vanilla extract. Mix until combined.

For the ganache filling
6 oz heavy cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Heat the cream in a saucepan and pour half of it over the chopped chocolate. Wait a minute to allow the cream to melt the chocolate some. Pour the remaining cream and slowly stir to make the ganache come together. Use immediately.

For the cake:
Level both your cakes (save those scraps!). Top the first layer with  ganache by first making a border of buttercream so the ganache does not fall off the sides. Top with some buttercream if you like. Place the second layer over the first and frost your cake with the remaining buttercream.

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