About two weeks ago my younger brother, Jared sent me a text me stating he had pink eye. I’m quite the germophobe, so I was immediately curious how he contracted it; he had no clue. Once I found out about his funky eye, I decided that I would make him a big, decadent, chocolate, layer cake…with chocolate stout. Jared often complains that he doesn’t get enough “play” on My Baking Addiction, so this Chocolate Stout Cake post is devoted to him and his unfortunate encounter with pink eye. His cake also kicks off an entire week of recipes featuring Stout beer as the star ingredient.
Although I have expressed my dislike for alcohol in general, I am always compelled to purchase alcoholic libations that pique my interest for use in recipes. One of those random purchases included a couple of bottles of chocolate stout beer that I knew would lend itself quite well to a chocolatey cake, and thus this Chocolate Stout Cake was born.
After posting the photo of this Chocolate Stout Cake on the My Baking Addiction Facebook page, it affectionately became known as the Pink Eye Cake, which is all kinds of hilarious and repulsive at the same time.
If you take one look at Jared, there is truly no doubt we are related, but if you get to know him for longer than five minutes, our personalities become even more similar than our physical characteristics. For starters, we are both kind of social introverts and definitely prefer a small circle of friends as opposed to being the life of the social scenes. Neither of us particularly enjoys alcohol, but we both have a serious issue with candy and sleeping in. We both use excessive sarcasm and choice words to get our points across and we are amazingly calm until you push the wrong button. Of course our parallel personalities make for some undoubtedly hilarious conversations and I truly couldn’t ask for better brother or friend.
Chocolate Stout Cake
Yield: about 12 servings
Ingredients:
For the Cake
1 ½ cups Chocolate Stout (you can also use regular stout, like Guinness)
½ cup strong black coffee
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably *Dutch-process)4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups sour creamFor the Icing
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 pound semisweet chocolate, choppedDirections:
For the Cake
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides and line with parchment paper. Butter paper.
2. In heavy large saucepan over medium heat, bring stout, coffee and butter to a simmer. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. In large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat eggs, vanilla and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.
4. Add stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat until just combined, taking care the stout mixture is cool enough that it will not cook the eggs. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.
For the icing
1. Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.
2. Place 1 cake layer on plate. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with second cake layer. Spread 2/3 cup icing over. Top with third cake layer. Spread remaining icing over top and sides of cake. Top with chocolate curls.
Notes:
- Cake is best served the day it is made, but will keep refrigerated in a sealed container for up to two days. Bring cake to room temperature for about an hour before you plan to serve.
- If you cannot find Dutch-process cocoa powder, I recommend using Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder
- The cakes was topped using homemade chocolate curls, you can find the recipe and tutorial here.
- Adapted from Epicurious.com
If you enjoyed this recipe, you may like...
{ 75 comments… read them below or add one }
This looks wonderful!
Seriously, Jamie, I’m putting my birthday cake request in now. MOUTh WATERING and GORGEOUS! I love how tall that cake is!
This looks so tall and beautiful! I’ve heard good things about chocolate stout lately but haven’t tried it out. Guinness is one of my favorite beers though so I’m sure I’d love it! I hope your brother feels better.
Fantastically beautiful stout chocolate cake. What’s not to love? Poor Jared. You know Pink Eye is just a cold in your eye? I used to get it all. the. time. when I worked in a preschool. Painful.
Thanks, Sis! The cake made up for me being ugly for 2 days of my life. You’re the best
Girl, this looks so good! I will not be waiting until I get pink eye for this one.
This looks so decadent and unbelievably good!
Yum! I have to say, I am a fan of alcohol, and have made “car bomb cupcakes”, and now I feel that adding stout to chocolate cake recipes is pretty much the only way I’ll make them! I started baking from scratch in the past year, and after many lackluster attempts, the chocolate cake with stout recipe just kills them all. I also used chocolate stout in red velvet, and it was delicious!
I can’t believe how perfect this is! I just added your blog to my Google reader this week and today I bought a four-pack of Guiness to make cupcakes and I
wondered what on earth I would do with the other three cans! Looking forward to the other stout recipes!
Love. This. I’m not a huge consumer of alcohol on its own either, but I love it in dessert! The cake looks absolutely sinful, and I love the chocolate curls on top!
Saw this in my reader and immediately thought ‘wow’ what a gorgeous and moist looking layer cake! Can’t wait to see what other stout recipes you’ve come up with to share
Oh my, this cake looks dangerous. There’s no way I could only eat one piece.
You’re the most amazing sister to make your brother an enormous cake like this to make him feel better, and with beer in it too, what guy wouldn’t love that! He must have been in heaven.
This looks awesome. The parts that I love most are: The fact that you are using the stout, the frosting is just simply heavy cream with chocolate and not with tons of butter and of course those beautiful chocolate curls. I was thinking of making those for a cake that I am thinking of baking for my friends bday party
.
By the way have I mentioned how much I enjoy looking at your blog? You have some dangerously good recipes!!
What a decadent cake! Love all that chocolate and the curls on top!
That cake looks beautiful!
This made me laugh because my youngest brother has also complained he does not get enough space/air time/whatever on my blog.
The cake looks fabulous.
I was looking forward to Guiness on St. Patrick’s Day…on second thought I would prefer a piece of this cake:)
My husband loves good beer. We don’t drink often, but when we do he always tries something fun and exciting. I think he’d love this! I think I’ll make it while my in laws in here in April. My father-in-law loves beer, and I think this could make everyone happy.
If I get pink eye will you make me one too?
Mine are feeling a tad bit itchy now that I think about it. ; )
This cake looks incredible! I’m saving this recipe because I need to make it!
OMG YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, I am dying to veganize this recipe.
What a beautiful cake! Hope you washed your hands
Sounds like you have a great relationship with your brother, aren’t they the best??
Anyone who sees this will be drooling all over… The cake looks perfect super moist and yummy
I would like to invite you to join in on a RECIPE linky party on my blog!
http://larkscountryheart.blogspot.com/
“Made it on Monday” is a WEEKLY recipe link party. So you can join in as often as you like.
I hope to see some of your recipes soon!
Since I had to deliver it, of course it was missing a piece upon arrival and this baby was one good cake…
Wow! This cake looks rich and moist and decadent, and completely amazing!
That looks amazing! I made a Double Chocolate Stout Cucake with Irish Cream Buttercream Frosting and posted it to my blog today! They are AMAZING! So rich and delicious!
This cake looks awesome!! And when your bro said he wanted more play on your site…I’m kind of doubting that this was the type of attention he wanted. LMAO!!!
Such a delicious and decadent dessert! This is my kind of cake. Thanks for sharing this recipe and the funny story about your brother, Jamie!
oh my, this looks gorgeous!
There are few things that frighten me more than pink eye… and I’m not even a germaphobe like you
This cake would make anyone feel better. Seriously, it’s a beautiful thing you’ve created here.
As always your pictures look amazing. And chocolate and stout beer? I’m sooooo in!
Wow! What a gorgeous display of your time and talent. A fun, creative, thoughtful post
Thanks!
Amazing! I would certainly feel better after receiving this cake, love the pics!
What a stunning cake! And what a lucky brother! I really love how stout makes a cake so light and fluffy. What brand of chocolate stout did you use?
That is seriously the best looking cake EVER! Yum. If I told you I have pink eye, would you send me a slice? Ha ha ha…
This absolutely gorgeous!!!! I’ve never tried this kind of cake, but you have me seriously craving a slice right now.
ooh. I’m loving the chocolate overload. The layers are beautifully even and neat. Well done!
Now that is quite the way to get a mention & an amazing cake!! Hope your brother is all healed up. This cake is gorgeous!
Oh my God! I love chocolate cake, and I love chocolate stouts. I bet this cake is to die for!
Delicious! cant wait to try this recipe! thank you so much for sharing!
-kelly
81chapters.com
Thank you! I made this cake today for my sister-in-law’s engagement, and it was a HUGE hit! Everyone was super impressed with the moist cake and delicious flavor. And I looked like a baking genius because it had 3 layers AND chocolate curls. I took pictures and will be putting them up on my site soon (hopefully…). This is my new favorite site!
Oh, I wish I could have all of this cake, but I can’t b/c of the alcohol! Is there a non-alcoholic substitute? More coffee? I love the ganache frosting. YUM!
You and your brother sound so cute! I love his reply! haha
I almost had a greedy heart attack when I saw your cake on tastespotting !! I’m in love !!
Looks fantastic. Absolutely awesome!
I really like this recipe. Many of them are overdone. This one is nice…
This looks wonderful, thanks for sharing!!
Stumble On brought me your cake and it is beautiful. I would love to invite you to bring a dish to my Full Plate Thursday. Thank you for sharing and have a great day!
This is so incredibly beautiful and it sounds delicious! I’ve never experimented with using beer in my baking. Interesting.
Yum..Yum.. The cake looks delicious. Nice Job.
Yummie! I saw it and fell immediatley in love with it and the immagination of its taste.
I will try it on my german colleagues, who are addicted to goooooood chocolate cakes.
I baked this last night and it is unbelievably awesome, so moist, so rich, so delicious – I look forward to trying more of your recipes
Thankyou!
This cake looks so delicious, I am definitely going to try this recipe. Thanks!!!. I’ll also be using the food processor I got at my site. Check it out, it makes baking so easy.
I’ve been sitting at home, quarantined, all day because, yep. I have pink eye too. And like your brother, I have no idea how I got it. But the only thing I could think about as soon as I realized I had it–”Who’s going to bake me a pink eye cake?” I would absolutely kill for this right now because Chocolate Stout is literally my favorite kind of cake! But I’ll have to settle for my boyfriend bringing me eye drops and a candy bar.
but how do I “chocolate curl”?
Wow, this cake was amazing. I did it for an birthdayparty! Everyone was amazed! I garnished it with strawberrys. It was so pretty and tasty too!
Maiko-
So glad you enjoyed it! The strawberry garnish sounds perfect!
-Jamie
i made this cake with a friend and it turned out AMAZING! i used espresso and half in half instead of the fresh coffee. and it turned out just as good. this cake definently takes time but is well worth it. thanks for sharing this recipe!!!
:):):)
I WANT TO MAKE THESE INTO CUPCAKES.
HOW CAN I DO IT?
THANKS
BK
Jamie,
Per your recommendation, I made this cake. It was fabulous, my friend even commented that it was the best cake he had ever had (with the notable exception of his wedding cake). I also burned almost as many calories as are in one bite of this cake carrying it from my car to work…
can’t wait to make it… mouth watering!!
My boyfriend asked me to make a dessert to impress the guys at the firehouse. After having my mother buy me the alcohol (I’m 18), I made this decadent cake. The guys asked my boyfriend if he was dating Martha Stewart. It was a proud moment. So thank you for your delicious recipe, making me look good, which made him look good!
If you haven’t made this cake yet, you absolutely need to get off of this computer right now and BAKE IT!!! I am not exaggerating when I tell you that this is the absolute best cake I’ve ever had. It is soooo perfect in every aspect: flavor, texture, aesthetic….
I am planning to make this for my husband on Valentine’s Day; he LOVES stouts!
I might have a dumb question, but how do you ‘cook’ the coffee in the mix w/out getting the crunchy grounds? Cheese cloth?
I currently *have pinkeye*. Also, St. Patrick’s Day is coming up. I believe these two things mean I am fated to make this cake (with extremely clean hands, never touching my face at all) and enjoy it! Yup. Done deal.
This cake looks gorgeous! I haven’t had any experience with stout before, though more and more recipes I encounter has it as a key ingredient! Should stock up on some Guiness I guess! Well Done!
Oh my good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s a perfect chocolate cake!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love it!!
I love your blog too!
I follow you
If you want my blog is: coeurdecuisine.blogspot.com
Fabulous cake!! I baked it recently and added some whipped cream and fresh strawberries between the layers.. Next time I’ll try it with some homemade raspberry and mint jam! Thanks a ton for this heavenly recipe!
Hello my name is Elizabeth and I work for a small library in Wyoming. We are currently putting together a recipie book for our annual Death By Chocolate Fundraiser. We’re using the recipies from the event, but we need pictures for the dividers, and I just love the picture at the top of this post (your Chocolate Stout Cake). If you would be interested in talking to me about what we could do to use your photo, please email me. Thank you for your time.
I made this cake for my friends birthday. Absolutely the best chocolate cake I have ever made. Perfectly moist without being heavy, great chocolate taste without being over powering and the simple frosting was delicious. I will be making more of your recipes for sure! Thank you.
Rach-
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed the cake! Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving your feedback on the recipe. Have a great day.
-Jamie
Thanks for the killer recipie!! My husband loved it!
Holly-
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for stopping by and providing your feedback- have a great day!
-Jamie
I just finished making this cake for my husbands birthday and somehow I ended up with extra batter so also made a dozen of cupcakes. They are so delicious and light. I am completely in love. I couldn’t master the chocolate curls, unfortunately. They seem too thin and brittle.
{ 1 trackback }