Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake with Bittersweet Icing

By

"Nothing frames sweetness so perfectly as bitterness. Think dark, toasty, rich and bitter, and you might arrive at chocolate. But this also describes Guinness Stout, the dark, bitter ale served at room temperature throughout the United Kingdom.

Our Guinness Stout Chocolate Layer Cake, elaborate and intense, combines those ingredients for a thrillingly chocolatey, rich and moist dessert. Tiny, sweet-tart currants, another of Ireland's prized ingredients, also find their way into the cake. And for another flavor booster, currant jelly forms part of the filling.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with this fabulous cake. It will delight chocolate lovers of all nationalities."

Crescent Dragonwagon

View complete recipe

  • 16

Ingredients

  • Drizzling Syrup:
  • 1 ⁄3 cup Guinness Stout
  • 1 ⁄3 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 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 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup red currant jelly, warmed
  • Bittersweet Icing (See recipe in collection)
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Step 1

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.

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.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Combine 2 tablespoons cocoa, 2 tablespoons sugar and 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 3⁄4 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 alternately 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 center comes out clean. Cool in 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. Press nuts into sides of cake.


Nutrition Information:
Per serving
460 calories
26 g fat
105 mg cholestserp;
7 g protein
52 g carbohydrates
2 g fiber
230 mg sodium

View complete recipe