I don’t usually bake – it’s really not my thing. I dislike the level of precision required, I get annoyed when I have to weigh things out carefully and can’t just freestyle my way through; I also tend to default to savoury snacking (cheese, crisps, olives) before I think about indulging my sweet tooth. But I mean, really, who doesn’t like chocolate cake?
I had a can of Toast Ale’s new 6.2% chocolate stout in the fridge – a new brew they’ve made from surplus bread & chocolate in collaboration with fellow B Corporation foodies Divine Chocolate, as part of their ‘Rise Up‘ campaign. It’s a freaking delicious stout, so I figured it would also taste amazing baked into a chocolate cake.
So here is an adaptation of an Edd Kimber recipe which I found on the Sainsbury’s Magazine website (here’s the original). I have made some substitutions to the recipe based on what I had in the pantry, and the fact I wanted to use this chocolate stout instead of Guinness. I also made a salted caramel topping instead of the frosting suggested in the original.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out 🙂
Disclosure: This isn’t a sponsored post, but the chocolate stout was gifted by Toast Ale with my most recent (paid-for) beer order, and the Halen Mon Salted Caramel Spread was gifted to me as part of an awesome Christmas hamper from DiscoverDelicious.Wales.
Ingredients:
- 125g organic unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
- 100ml Chocolate Stout
- 40g Fairtrade cocoa powder
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 100ml organic whole milk
- 2 large organic eggs
- 175g plain flour
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
For the Salted Caramel frosting:
- 25g organic unsalted butter
- 300g full-fat cream cheese
- 1 tbsp Halen Mon Salted Caramel Spread
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Lightly butter a 900g loaf tin that measures about 20cm x 9cm x 8cm deep and line with a strip of baking paper, so that the excess hangs over the sides of the tin (this will make removing the loaf easier).
- Put the butter into a pan and place over a medium heat until melted. Remove from the heat, and add the Chocolate Stout and cocoa powder, whisking together until smooth. Whisk the sugar, milk and eggs into the stout mixture.
- In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and pinch of salt. Add the stout mixture and whisk briefly until smooth and combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before carefully lifting out; cool on a wire rack.
- To make the frosting, melt the butter then in a bowl, add it to the cream cheese and salted caramel spread, and beat until fully combined.
- To decorate, spread the frosting over the top of the cooled cake and finish with a dusting of cocoa powder or some chocolate shavings.
