Chocolate Stout Cake - Vying with Nigella

Lyndsay, as you may recall, is the queen of cupcakes.  While at work on her PhD, she takes a very business-like and entirely rational approach to life. When it comes to dessert-making however, it appears her philosophy is less restrained, in fact, I think it fair to say that she believes in gilding the lily. With this cake recipe, which was drawn from a website by the name of Brown-eyed Baker, Lyndsay vies for sweet hyperbole with Nigella Lawson's chocolate Guinness cake. 

Well done.

Cake Ingredients:

• 1½ cups stout or dark beer, such as Guinness
• 1½ cups unsalted butter
• 1 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 2¼ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

Frosting Ingredients:

• 16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• ½ cup butter, at room temperature
• 7 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream
• 6 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans, and line them with parchment paper circles.

2. Place the stout and butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cocoa powder. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.

3. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.

4. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs and sour cream. Add the stout-cocoa mixture, mixing to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix together at slow speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix again for 1 minute.

5. Divide the batter equally among the prepared pans. Bake the layers for 35 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes before turning the cakes out of their pans and returning to the rack to finish cooling completely before frosting.

Make the Frosting: In a mixing bowl, blend together the cream cheese, butter, and Baileys Irish Cream on medium speed until completely smooth and combined. Gradually add the powdered sugar on medium-low speed until it has all been added. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is smooth and thoroughly mixed. Use immediately. You can refrigerate the frosting, but it will need to be brought to room temperature before using. This yields enough frosting to fill the cake and frost the outside, and do some basic decorations.

Some additional notes from the baker and a bit of a riddle from the King Authur Flour Baker's Companion.......
" I forgot to mention that had to fiddle with the recipe a bit. I didn't have dutch process cocoa powder, and didn't see it in any of the grocery stores I regularly go to, so after a bit of 'google-ing' I figured out how to substitute regular cocoa powder. 

According to "The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion":

If a recipe calls for natural cocoa and baking soda and you want to use Dutch-process cocoa, substitute an equal amount of Dutch-process cocoa but replace the soda with twice the amount of baking powder. If the recipe calls for Dutch-process cocoa powder and baking powder, substitute the same amount of natural cocoa but replace the baking powder with half the amount of baking soda.

I think in the end I still used a little bit of baking powder along with the addition of the baking soda and everything worked just fine - the cake rose and did not taste like soap - success!"