Guinness Stout Moist Chocolate Cake

I promised a friend from Taiwan to write a blog post on the Guinness Stout cake. Due to busy schedule ever since Chinese New Year, I have not had the time to sit down and blog about food. So, here's it is. The promising delicious with subtle beer scent cake. I hope you'll like it!

Guinness Stout Moist Chocolate Cake

Original recipe by: Fish Lee; Retrieved from Samantha Needs Vacation 

PS# For the cake above, I actually over baked it a little, causing the sides of the cake to be falling off easily. I was doing something else at that time hence forgot to rush back to the oven. =X So, if you bake it properly, it should be fine. Nevertheless, the taste is still amazing. 

INGREDIENTS:

200g unsalted room temperature butter (I used salted butter)

85g unsweetened cocoa powder (I used cocoa powder from the bakery store) 

130g low protein flour/cake flour

280g brown sugar (I think I'll reduce to 250-260g next time; it's a little sweet for me)

1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
250g Guinness Stout beer in room temperature
1 tablespoon of Vanilla essence
2 eggs

STEPS:

1. Simmer the beer in a pot with low heat on the stove. Do not boil it. Let it simmer at the temperature between 40-50 degree Celsius. 
2. Add in butter and let it dissolve into the beer. 
3. Add in brown sugar and sieved cocoa powder. Remove from heat. Stir continuously until everything is dissolved. 
4. Mix eggs and vanilla essence together. Pour into the mixture earlier in (3) which temperature has slightly reduced. Mix well to combine all ingredients. 
5. Add in sieved cocoa powder, cake flour, baking powder and baking soda into the mixture in (4). Mix with a whisk until everything is blended together. The batter is watery but don't worry, you are on the right track.
6. Prepare a 8 inches round cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper. 
7. Pour the batter into the cake tin.
8. Bake at 170 degree Celsius for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes or until fully cooked (mine was 150 degree Celsius for approximately the same time). 
9. Remove cake from the oven and let it cool on the rack. 
10. Remove the cake mold.
11. Optional: You may spray some kahlua wine (coffee wine) on top of the cake for finishing or leave this out if you don't have it.
12. The cake is ready to be served when it has completely cooled down. 

This cake is extremely dark in colour. Some people always have crazy fears over dark cakes which I cannot understand why. It has always been a common sense to me that whenever a chocolate cake is very dark in colour, it simply means it has lots of cocoa inside and it is going to taste super chocolatey. It equates yummy to me. However, surprising to know, some people are terrified with the colour. =/ In fact, I am terrified with their response. How could they react such way to such a delicious chocolate cake?? 

Below is the original recipe in Mandarin.

蛋糕体材料:（谢谢 Fish Lee 的分享）
无盐奶油 200g (室温)
无糖純可可粉 85g
低筋面粉 130g
黄糖 280g (brown sugar)
苏打粉 1tsp
发粉 1tsp
黑狗啤酒 250g (室温)
香草精 1tbsp
鸡蛋 2粒

做法:
1、黑啤酒放入小鍋用低溫加熱、千万别加熱到滾、維持約40-50度左右、放入奶油、稍微攪拌到奶油慢慢溶入黑啤酒、最後加入黄糖、筛入可可粉、这时，把小鍋移開爐火，慢慢搅拌至所有材料彻底均匀。

2、雞蛋加入香草精、輕輕打散之後，加入已稍微降温的做法(1)里，搅拌均匀。

3、低筋麵粉、蘇打粉、泡打粉混合过筛、把过筛后的粉類加入做法(2)里，稍微搅拌一下、用手动打蛋器将所有材料混合均匀。 
♛完成后的蛋糕面糊很稀，但是这个不是错误的哦。

4、倒入8寸已铺油纸的蛋糕模内、烘烤温度170度，约1小时15分钟。或用竹签插入蛋糕体，拔出来的竹签干净，表示熟透。

5、蛋糕模稍微降温后，脱模，喷洒适量咖啡酒在蛋糕上，放在铁架上待凉。
♛这个步骤，如果没有咖啡酒，可以省略。