Chocolate Porter Layer Cake

After reading about a chocolate stout layer cake in bon appetit the Mrs. wanted to try it out, and since I'm all for cooking with beer I was most supportive of the idea and went myself to systemet to procure a good porter. After buying all the ingredients, we thought the amount of frosting suggested in the original recipe sounded a little over the top (1 lb of chocolate and 2 cups cream) and decided to go for only half the amount of frosting.

Ingredients:
- 280 g (10 oz) flour
- 85 g (3 oz) 90% chocolate
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 200 g (7 oz) margarine
- 250 g (8.8 oz) + 3 tbsp sugar
- 3 eggs, separated
- 1 ⁷/₈ dL (0.8 cups) Carnegie Porter
- 1 ²/₃ dL (0.7 cups) freshly brewed coffee
frosting:
- 250 g (8.8 oz) 57% chocolate
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) cream
- 1 tsp powdered instant coffee

First some coffee was brewed, the egg yolks were separated from the whites, and the 90% chocolate was melted over hot water. Meanwhile the salt, baking powder and baking soda was stirred into the flour in a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, the margarine was beaten (using an electric mixer) together with the large portion of sugar until fluffy. The egg yolks were added to the margarine-sugar mixture and beaten well into it. Subsequently, the melted chocolate, porter and freshly brewed coffee were beaten into the mixture one after the other. Finally the flour mixture was beaten into the dough.

In a separate bowl (and with clean beaters) the small portion of sugar was beaten with the egg whites until stiff. This egg-white foam was gently mixed (not beaten) into the dough, which was baked in two portions in baking paper lined baking pans (vertical sides, 22 cm (9 inch) diameter) at 175 C (350 F) for 25-30 minutes (until a knife inserted into the centre came out clean).

The two cake pieces were allowed to cool 20-30 minutes in the pans before taking them out and letting them cool completely.

For the frosting, the cream was heated in a small pot together with the coffee powder with occasional stirring - once it reached simmering, it was poured over the 57% chocolate (broken into large squares). After letting it stand for a minute, it was easily stirred into a homogeneous mixture. The frosting was covered and chilled in the fridge - with occasional stirring - until it had thickened sufficiently for easy assembly of the cake: some 2-3 hours.

One cake piece was placed upside-down on a large plate and approximately half the frosting was spread on it in an even layer before placing the other cake piece on top (upside-up) and spreading the rest of the frosting evenly over the entire cake.

We had the first piece of it the same day but although it's not as heavy as certain other chocolate cakes, we still had to save some for later. Interestingly, the notes of coffee and porter were much more notable on the first day - which could be good or bad depending on your point of view. Personally I liked it that way and was a little disappointed that it was 'merely' a very good chocolate cake the following days as we ate the rest.

And no, we never thought there was too little frosting on it...

Update: I have since made this cake again a couple of times and note the following improvements to the procedure: (1) Rather than melting the dark chocolate separately, it can simply be dissolved in the freshly brewed coffee. (2) The electric mixer is only really good for beating the egg whites with sugar to a white foam - for everything else, I find it's preferable to just mix using a ladle. (3) With a spring form that is 5 cm (2 inches) tall all the batter can be baked in one pan (takes about 60-70 minutes at 175 C (350 F)) - once cooled it is reasonable easy to cut the cake in two and assemble the layers as above.