Mother Earth Brewing

First off, I don't plan to make blogging about recipes a regular thing, but I had some good feedback from my Old Neighborhood Oatmeal Porter meatloaf recipe blog a few weeks ago... so I thought in honor of Silent Night and old man winter himself, I'd post a recipe using stout. -Having a sweet tooth, I chose a stout cake. Cold temps beg for a rockin' fire in the fireplace, and the smell of something sweet baking in the air. Really, this is a great time to slow down a bit from the hussle of the holidays and bake a cake. The recipe I chose is Very Easy (that's a must for me) and it uses ingrediants you're likely to have on hand already-- so no searching for some fancy extract or anything like that. I think I'll serve this stout cake with a side of vanilla bean icecream (2 scoops in fact!)

We have about one week until Christmas... go out and get a bottle of cheer while you can. Remember:: Silent Night is a seasonal beer, which means it will disapear as fast as Old St. Nick. Okay, let's get started.

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 cups Silent Night Imperial Stout
• 2 cups unsalted butter (that's 4 sticks) 
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 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

Here's what you need to make the icing (or you can purcase prepared icing if you want to save some time)

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

Here's what you do:

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Butter three 8-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides and line with parchment paper. Then, butter paper.
Bring 2 cups stout and 2 cups butter to simmer in a 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.

Let's make the 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.

I'm not pretending to know much about baking, but I think vanilla bean icecream makes a fantastic accompaniment to this stout cake. Try it out for yourself, and let me know what you think. Thanks to the Epicuious for this treat-- it's the website of all websites for recipes and anything kitchen related!

Peace, Love, and Beer………Trent