by arielleclementine
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A&M's Testing Notes:
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Expand1 cup all-purpose flour Ask a question about this ingredient
1 cup granulated sugar Ask a question about this ingredient
1/2 cup good cocoa powder Ask a question about this ingredient
1 teaspoon baking soda Ask a question about this ingredient
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt Ask a question about this ingredient
1 large egg, at room temperature Ask a question about this ingredient
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature Ask a question about this ingredient
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled Ask a question about this ingredient
3/4 cups Guinness Extra Stout, at room temperature Ask a question about this ingredient
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature Ask a question about this ingredient
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature Ask a question about this ingredient
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted Ask a question about this ingredient
1/4 cup fermented pear cider (I like Ace's) Ask a question about this ingredient
1 dried pear slice, for garnish Ask a question about this ingredient
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a nine-inch round cake pan.
Ask a question about this stepMix together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
Ask a question about this stepIn a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sour cream. Then whisk in melted butter and Guinness. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and combine with a rubber spatula. Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Ask a question about this stepWhile the cake is baking, prepare the frosting. Put the softened butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until creamy and well combined, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the powdered sugar and mix until combined. Slowly pour in the pear cider and mix until the frosting comes together. Let the frosting set up a bit in the refrigerator until the cake is ready to frost.
Ask a question about this stepWhen the cake is cool, transfer it to a platter. Spread the icing on top of the cake, taking care to push it all the way to the edges. Garnish with a slice of dried pear and enjoy with a glass of pear cider!
Ask a question about this stepThis cake recipe really reminds me of Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guiness cake, which is one of our family's favourites (http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086) However I like your idea for a pear cider frosting, delicious!
I agree that the cakes look similar, but my chocolate cake is actually an adaptation of this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Stout-Cake-107105. I streamlined it and played with the ratios of beer and chocolate to make it a more boozy cake. I did not know about Nigella's cake when I wrote this recipe. I frosted it in the easiest way possible (top only) because I wanted an easy weeknight cake, without having to do any fussy decorating, or worrying about crumbs getting into the frosting. I think if you compare any chocolate stout cake to any other, you're likely to see a pretty similar ingredient list.
Just made one with leftover cream cheese frosting and Lager beer from new year, it's delicious! Had a big piece and I think I have to postpone my diet plan till tommorow:P
Thanks for the recipe!
I live in Iowa City; the home of the University of Iowa. Go Hawks! The team colors are black and gold. I made this cake for a fall football tailgate party and it was delicious. Super moist. Let's post more black and gold food, folks!
Question, is it 1 egg or 2? The ingredient list says 1, but in the directions below it it is plural (eggs).
sorry for the typo! it's just one egg.
Wowee! Awesome chocolate cake. Didn't have pear cider but it was fab anyway. And Dunkelweizen works just as well as stout.
will you let us know how that goes? I'm going to try the same tomorrow night and would love some guidance. I figure I will just be super-vigilant at the oven.
I just did this successfully. 12 large cupcakes (using a standard 12-hole muffin / yorkshire pudding tin), kept the temp the same, pulled them out at about 22 minutes.
Congratulations on the wildcard win, I really need to make this cake!!
HURRAH I am so happy this got a wild card - I make this cake a LOT and seriously, someone steals half of it wherever I take it so they can have it all to themselves (and not the same someone every time - it's just that good!!)
Congratulations, arielleclementine!! This is going to the top of my list of things to make in 2012! Cheers!
Wow, this looks just incredible. I don't know how I missed it before. Congratulations, arielleclementine, on your wildcard win. I think that I have just found what dessert I will be making for New Year's Eve dinner!!
thanks mom!!
Hooray!!! So glad, because I've known for a while... this cake is amazing. Congrats.
Yay!!!! So glad this got a trophy. It was kind of about time!
oh wow!!! what a hugely thrilling surprise!! thank you all so so very much- i can't believe it!
Congratulations, AC! I agree with A&M - you are a genius!!!
Making this for my sons when they come home from college . . . They will love it. ;o)
i'm honored! thank you! i hope you love it :)
Loved seeing this on Antonia's thread asking readers about favorite Food52 recipes. It lead me here as I must have missed it before. Wow. I have saved it and can't wait to give it a try. I hope you are well!!
thanks so much Waverly! it's a very simple cake- i do hope you like it! let us know if you have a hankering to come to austin for a meet up- we'd love to see you again!
Loved seeing this on Antonia's thread asking readers about favorite Food52 recipes. It lead me here as I must have missed it before. Wow. I have saved it and can't wait to give it a try. I hope you are well!!
Loved seeing this on Antonia's thread asking readers about favorite Food52 recipes. It lead me here as I must have missed it before. Wow. I have saved it and can't wait to give it a try. I hope you are well!!
Sooooooooooooo good. Super moist, not too rich like other Guinness cakes. Ended up using apple cider for the icing and it was still fantastic.
how wonderful! thank you!
Loved it! Deep, dark and moist, with a fantastic frosting.
hooray! thank you!
As aargersi said...Best cake ever. I was in on that feeding frenzy and I can attest to how tasty it was.
haha! that's fantastic- i'm thrilled that you liked it!
best. cake. ever. Made it yesterday, and between 4 of us we ate about 2/3 of it last night. The rest met it's maker today. This is a cake I will make again and again!!
friend! thanks for making it and for your kind comments! i'm so happy you liked it :)
How creative and pretty!
thank you so much!!
hooray! thanks dymnyno :)
OH BABY, the snakebite is BACK! Love me some booze in my cake.
haha! you're adorable :) huge congrats on your wildcard win- those scones are off-the-charts incredible!
How funny - this is ON THE MENU for a birthday dinner I am cooking Saturday! I am finally making it after admiring it for many many months. Just emailed Sasha for wine paiting tips!!!
Forget Sasha...red wine is perfect with chocolate...esp. Cabernet!
Oh, I'm so happy to be reminded of this one! This would be great for Thanksgiving - it ROCKS! The boozy cream cheese frosting is amazing. This cake is strangely light considering it is chocolate. By the way congrats on your big news arielleclementine! So exciting!
huzzah! thank you so much! maybe i will enter it into this weeks contest!
hey thanks! i would eat practically anything if it was covered in cream cheese icing, but i do think the combo works well :)
We are having this tomorrow for a St. Patty's day birthday celebration. The frosting is delish. Thanks for the recipe!
hooray! thanks, monkeymom! i hope you like it :)
The cake was so good! So moist...it was amazing with the frosting. I now understand the 'fistfuls' Helen refers to below.
haha! thank you! you really made my day :) so happy you liked it!
Congrats on the Editors' Pick designation. Well deserved.
thank you :) your cake sounds absolutely incredible, and i will be making it as soon as i get my hands on some grappa!
Oh . . . Yum!
hey, thanks!
Well, I feel absolutely in-the-loop because I was fortunate enough to get a taste of this finely crafted cake and I have to say it was totally dee-lish and a wonderful surprise to my taste buds. Sh-h-h don't tell anyone, but I'm making this for my sweetheart for Valentine's Day! (from Facebook)
thank you, miss kitty!
thank you so much!
Love the "swooning" cider-cream cheese frosting! Pears and chocolate, yum. The idea of a "snake bite" cake is great, too--fun concept.
thank you! i thought i'd doctor up my intro with my best danielle steel impression in honor of this valentine's day contest :)
This sounds and looks delicious! Can't wait to give it a try! YUM!
thanks so much, Annelle!
Arielle. I'm in your house. I'm eating your cake. AND IT IS DELICIOUS. I didn't ask and I don't even feel bad. Because it is so good!!!!!! Wow. Well done again sister. It really is the kiss of pear cider in the icing that compliments your perfect chocolate cake so well. And it's a moist chocolate cake too!! My comment writing keeps getting interrupted by fistfuls of cake and both of the dogs are silently judging me from across the room, but I don't care. It is that good : )
hahaha! i am creeped out and flattered at the same time! i'm happy you like the cake! it's quite boozy, aye?
also- there's pesto in the fridge if you want it!
Not any more. Ditto to your leftover broccoli-custard quiche. I guess I was hungry.
I just had the pleasure of trying this scrumptious cake (oh the perks of working with arielle!) and it tastes as good as it looks! It is SOOO yummy! The pear icing and the stout in the cake are such a wonderful combination! Yay Arielle!
thanks, sweet friend!!
Oh. My. Goodness. That thing is beautiful. How did you get the lighting just right? Pear and chocolate - one of my favorite combinations. I'm afraid I'd eat all the frosting before getting any on the cake!
thank you! i have a light from IKEA near my piano that has positionable lights- i just aimed all of them at the center of the cake, and was quite lucky that it worked out ok :) the frosting is pretty fun, and joy of joys, this recipe makes enough extra frosting to allow for pre-frosting samples!
Pear and chocolate - so nice. Another great recipe, Arielleclementine!
hey, thanks! i'm so happy to be part of such a kind community of cooks :)
Wow. I don't bake but I might have to make an exception here ;D
what a lovely compliment! thanks, lastnightsdinner!
I have a question about the recipe "The Snake Bite" from arielleclementine.
Steven is the author of the best-selling Barbecue Bible and the host of two grilling TV shows: The Primal Grill and Barbecue University.
First off, I really REALLY like the cake. It's very moist, and very fudgy, without feeling like it's under done. It had a lovely even top (dodgy electric oven in a student house means that this is a serious serious rarity for me!)
The fall down for me was the icing. Round one: horrible gooey mess that wouldn't set. Left it in the fridge for over an hour before I gave up and tried to pour some on anyway, only to find it had (apparently) split. Disaster. Made the whole thing look like cat vomit :(
So cake number 1 got mashed up to make cake pops, because there was really no disguising the icky nearly frosting.
But I loved the cake, and I'd promised it to work colleagues. So I ran out to Tesco ten minutes before closing and started again. No time to cook a whole 9 inch cake before bed (and I couldn't bear washing up my tin twice!) so this time I used the same recipe to do 12 cup cakes. 22 minutes ish - perfect. I had been planning to just make up some basic cream cheese frosting. And then I thought I'd try your recipe again sans cider (because I'd foolishly drunk the rest of the cider and didn't want to waste another can!).
Same icky lumpy mess. Now at this point I should specify that as an impoverished student I don't have a fancy mixer: I beat by hand. And I finally realised that the mix wasn't splitting: it was tiny tiny lumps of cream cheese that I just couldn't beat out. So off I went (and it's 23:00 BST here in the UK!) to borrow a mixer. And after beating the hell out of my lumpy bowl of sugary cream cheese.... ta da! Frosting! Kind of wish I'd opened the perry now but never mind, there's always a next time.
This will be a staple chocolate cake now I think... But maybe I'll leave the frosting until I own a mixer!