Father's Day- Chocolate Stout Cake

For Father's Day, my family met up at my aunt's house for a BBQ. It was a perfect day to eat outside on the deck with loved ones. Everyone was asked to bring something, and I was assigned to make dessert. I found this recipe off a blog I enjoy reading called The Bitten Word. Zach and Clay share their cooking and baking adventures by using recipes from their collection of food magazines.

I figured everyone loves chocolate and dads love beer, so a Chocolate Stout cake would be perfect! Listed below is the full recipe, but I cut it in half since I read all of the reviews and The Bitten Word's post, and it was just going to be too much cake if I followed the original recipe.

Chocolate Stout Cake
Bon Appétit (September 2002)

Servings: Makes 12 servings.

Ingredients
Cake
2 cups stout (such as Guinness)
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 salt
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sour cream

Icing
2 cups whipping cream
1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) or semisweet chocolate, chopped

Preparation

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Line with parchment paper. Butter paper. Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups 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 1 1/2 teaspoons 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. 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 icing:
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.

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.

The cake was really good, rich, and dense. It wasn't overly sweet, and even though I made it the night before, it was still good the next day. I didn't have round pans, so I poured the batter (1/2 this recipe) into a 13X9 pan. Once it cooled, I cut it in half width-wise and stacked it on top of one another to get two tiers. It worked out just fine, thankfully =)

I love eating with my family. We always have really good food, and its relaxing to hang out with one another since daily life can be so hectic. We had guacamole, roast beef, broccoli and cauliflower with cheese, deviled eggs, Greek salad, kim bap, and and Irish cheese.

Hope all the dads out there had a good day of pampering and being well-fed! 4th of July is this weekend, and I'll be making something new for that BBQ, so I'll definitely post that soon.