If you enjoy chocolate and also the decadence in a milk stout this cake will be one of your staples. You can use whatever beer you would like, I believe the best route is a dark stout with a ton of chocolate, coffee or a combination. I chose Left Hand Brewing Company’s Nitro Milk Stout as seen in the photo and this has given me the best result thus far. AleSmith Speedway Stout (which happens to be my all time favorite beer) would also be an excellent choice but it is hard to find outside of the state of California. If you can’t find a beer that matches these descriptions or you’re lost on what to use, Guinness Foreign Stout would work just fine and can be found nearly everywhere.

Chocolate Stout Cake

Originally adapted from SmittenKitchen.com

( If you are not already aware- it greatly improves baking recipes to let ingredients come to room temperature before using)

1 cup stout

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

8 to 10 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips

6 tablespoons heavy cream

3/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules or if you don’t have instant coffee just add a few teaspoons leftover from your coffee pot.

Cake preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan extremely well ( nothing is worse than missing a few spots and getting a cake that sticks in the pan). Bring the stout and the butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cool completely in the pan, then turn cake out onto a rack or plate fpr for drizzling ganache.

Ganache:

For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake. If you really want an impressive look, half way through pouring the ganache over the cake you can add a little more half and half to make the ganache a bit lighter and then drizzle over-top of darker chocolate.

Enjoy!