First posted: Jul 4, 2014
Sticky Chocolate Stout Cake
Sometime last year, I was lucky enough to be invited to the SAB HQ here in Jozi for a food pairing extravaganza presented by Masterchef SA Judge, Pete Goffe-Wood. 7 courses later I had a whole new view on beer, and how it can be friends with food. And I’m talking a whole lot more than our old favourite beer bread.
So when Castle Milk Stout said could they send me some of their brand new Ultra Smooth Stout to play around with (the closest thing to a draught beer at home with a very special pouring ritual), I greeted the chance with open arms, and my thoughts went immediately to making a sticky, gooey chocolate stout cake. I adapted my go-to chocolate cake recipe to include the creamy stout, and the result was a dense, interesting, complex, sticky chocolate cake with an almost-instant icing that I think you might just thank me for. The stout takes the edge off that ultra sweetness that goes hand in hand with so many chocolate cakes, and adds a whole new flavour dimension. Give it a bash…
Ingredients
Cooks in: Serves:6
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup cake flour, sifted
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 3 level Tbsp cocoa powder
- a pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup Castle Milk Stout
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 4-6 Tbsp Nutella
- 4-6 Tbsp just boiled water
- Whisk together until smooth and it reaches the desired consistency
What to do
1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C and lightly grease a cake tin 2. Add the sugar to a large mixing bowl, then sieve over the flour, baking 3. In a measuring jug, whisk together the eggs, stout, oil and vanilla essence, 4. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 20 minutes, or until the cake is just cooked 6. To make the icing, mix the ingredients until smooth, altering the quantities to 7. Once the cake has cooled completely, ice and serve as soon as possible. Photo by Warren Heath.
powder, baking soda and cocoa. Add in the pinch of salt.
and add to the dry ingredients, whisking as you do, until everything is just combined.
through and a skewer inserted into its centre comes out clean.
suit your preferred consistency.