Rich Stout Cake
Submitted by brianjwood on October 22, 2002 at 5:06 am

DESCRIPTION
Rich Stout Cake

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under cakes

INSTRUCTIONS
This is a delight from Gary Rhodes - indulge and go to confession for your thoughts!
Cheers, Brian

Rich Stout Cake
This is a chocolate cake with a difference. It's a basic chocolate cake recipe with the addition of rich stout which makes a very deep, rich cake, not only with the flavour of stout but also the colour to go with it. Guinness works very well in this recipe. The combination of the soft brown sugar and stout gives you fuller texture and taste. Also 100-225g (4-8 oz) of plain chocolate can be grated into the mix to give an even stronger taste. It's very good to eat as a cake, or for real chocoholics, you could warm a slice in the microwave and serve it with a Rich Chocolate Sauce (see p.248).
MAKES 1 x 20-25 cm (8-10 in) cake

225 9 (8 oz) unsalted butter 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
350 9 (12 oz) soft brown sugar 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs, beaten 400 ml (14 fl oz) stout (Guinness)
225 9 (8 oz) plain flour 100g (4 oz) cocoa

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F /gas 4. Butter a 20-25 cm (8-10 in) deep cake tin. Cream together the butter with the soft brown sugar. Gradually add the beaten eggs. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix the stout with the cocoa powder. Now add the flour and stout mixes alternately to the butter and eggs until completely and evenly bound. You will find the consistency to be quite soft.
Spoon into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until set. You may need to cover with a piece of brown paper after an hour to prevent it browning too much. Allow to cool before removing from the tin. The stout cake is now ready -cheers!
Variations
Pouring a glass of stout always leaves you with a lovely finish on the top. You can do exactly the same with this cake. Melt 100 to 175g ( 4-6 oz) of grated white chocolate with 100-175 g (4-6 oz) of butter and 1-2 measures of Irish whiskey until just softened, then leave to cool. You now have a rich white chocolate icing to spread on top of the cake.
To make a glass of Stout Cake Pudding, simply blitz some of the cake to a crumb stage and spoon into 300 ml (1/2 pint) glasses, leaving 1-2 cm (1/2 – 3/4 in) clear at the top. Soak the sponge crumbs in a flavoured syrup or perhaps add freshly grated chocolate or even fruits or raisins. Finish the dish with Irish Whiskey Sabayon (p.245) and pour on top. This, as you can imagine, looks just like a real half pint of thick creamy stout and tastes just as good!