Last week, the entire Internet was swarming with St. Patty's Day recipe ideas. That's where I found the inspiration for this cake. I had the hardest time, though, finding a recipe that fit with what I was looking for. I wanted a recipe that included a lot of beer...I actually wanted to taste it and not have it hidden by a lot of other ingredients. I also wanted a dairy-free version, but not necessarily vegan because those sometimes taste weird. Most of the Chocolate Stout Cake recipes I found on all the popular recipe sites were the exact same recipe. Just one recipe was getting tossed around! I guess it must be a good one, but it also included sour cream. Now, if a recipe includes just milk or even buttermilk, that is easy to substitute with a non-dairy option (and a little vinegar, if needed). However, sour cream has a completely different consistency to milk or buttermilk. It contains more fat and is pretty thick, which means that it was bringing both moisture and bulk to the recipe. It is not an easy task to find a non-dairy substitute for sour cream. I could have used some dairy-free yogurt, but I didn't have any on hand. I found a recipe that used silky tofu instead of sour cream, but not only did I not have any tofu, but I thought that it might make the cake taste less appetizing. So, I combined some of the recipes that I found with what I know about baking to come up with this very simple cake recipe. And it worked! And it tasted like chocolate beer...so I was pretty happy.
The only thing I would change was the cooking time. I added in chocolate chips, so when I went in for a toothpick test, the melted chocolate chips made it seem like the whole cake was still wet inside. I left it in the oven for a little bit longer than needed to keep it moist and rich. However, coconut oil keeps baked goods very moist, so the end product wasn't overly dry, just a little flakier than I had hoped. This could also be due to using whole wheat flour, but the overall result and taste were good.
The other thing that I didn't do was make a frosting for this. My husband and I devoured this cake without needed anything added to it, though I do think if you wanted a sweeter, or fancier cake, this would be delicious with an Irish cream frosting, or other vanilla-flavored frosting of your choice.
T.E.A.'s Chocolate Stout Cake
makes 1 9" cake
1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup stout
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 cup dark chocolate chips
non-stick cooking spray
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Oil your 9" cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Mix thoroughly.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, stout, and coconut oil. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until incorporated. Do not over-mix. Fold in chocolate chips.
4. Pour batter into oiled cake pan, and bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (Baking this cake will take more or less time depending on your oven.)
5. Take cake out of the oven and invert it onto a wire rack. Let cool completely. Frosting the cake, if desired, or enjoy as is!
NOTE: For frosting: cut cake in even halves, add frosting to the top of one half, add the next half of the cake, then frosting the entire outside. If there are a lot of crumbs in your frosting on the outside of your cake, put the cake in the refrigerator until the frosting sets up, then add another thin layer on top. This will cover up any spots of crumbs.
YUM! :)
UPDATE: For those of you who do not want to use beer, I made this cake again with whole coconut milk and it turned out just great! Any whole, thick milk or yogurt will work as well. :)
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