Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake. The only cake suited for the holiday. Because unlike all of the other brightly colored sweets out there that claim to honor St. Patrick's Day simply because they're green; this cake actually has Guinness in it! Alcohol and chocolate you ask? Why yes! This cake is riddled with the bitter sweet combination of beer and chocolate making it perfect for your St. Patrick's Day celebration.
I haven't made this cake in years. In fact, the last time I made it was the year I met my husband up at college. Since we mostly ate at the college dining hall leaving me little chance to cook for him, I wanted to show off my baking skills and win him over with sweets. As the old saying goes: "the best way to a man's heart is through his stomach." So I busted out the dark chocolate and Guinness and started to create my "man catching" cake. To this day, I don't know if he was really all that impressed or if he just thought it was simply good cake. But considering that he scarfed down his piece and, 5 years later he's still raving about my baking, I guess the cake did its job.
So after you finish eating your classic St. Patrick's Day dinner of corn beef and cabbage with a side of potatoes (because that's what the Irish eat, right?), top off the evening with some Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake and your taste buds will be singing!
Ingredients:
Bittersweet Icing
1 ½ cups heavy cream
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 ½ tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
4 ½ tablespoons cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
To prepare the Bittersweet Icing, bring cream to a boil. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl, pour boiling cream over it, and whisk until chocolate melts and is thoroughly combined. Cover tightly and chill. Chill beaters from a hand-held mixture at the same time.
Up to 3 hours before serving the cake, whip chocolate mixture with a hand-held mixer. When soft peaks form, sift in confectioners’ sugar and cocoa and add vanilla and salt. Continue whipping until combined.
Drizzling Syrup
1/3 Cup Guinness Stout
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
To prepare syrup, combine all ingredients in a small, heavy saucepan, whisking until smooth. Heat over medium heat, until sugar dissolves and syrup is smooth.
Cake
2/3 cup Guinness Stout (measured after foam has subsided)
2/3 cup currants
1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, unsweetened cocoa powder
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
¾ cup buttermilk
1 ¾ cups, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons, all purpose flour
Cooking spray
2/3 cup butter, softened
4 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup red currant jelly, warmed
Bitter Sweet Icing (seen above)
Preheat over to 350° F.
To prepare cake, pour stout over currants; cover and soak until plump.
Drain Currants, reserving stout. Add stout to a small saucepan. Whisk in 1/3 cup cocoa and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; add semisweet chocolate, stirring until chocolate melts. Cool slightly. Stir in buttermilk.
Combine 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 tablespoons flour. Coat two 8 or 9 inch square or round cake pans with cooking spray; dust with cocoa mixture.
Beat butter with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Gradually beat in 1 ¾ cups sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
Combine 2 cups flour with baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture with chocolate mixture, stirring until blended. (Batter may look curdled.) Stir in currants.
Divide batter between pans. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until a wooden pick inserted in the enter comes out clean. Cool pans on a wire rack 10 minutes; invert onto rack.
Poke tops of cake layers with a skewer or toothpick. Spoon Drizzling Syrup over tops. Place one layer on a platter. Spread warmed jelly over layer on the platter. Chill 30 minutes. Cover jelly with about a quarter of the Bittersweet Icing. Place second layer on top.
Ice top and sides of the cake with the remaining icing.
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