Dark Chocolate Porter Cake

This recipe is one that caught my eye from the book “The Best of American Beer & Food” by Lucy Saunders. She gathered this recipe from Chef Nathan Berg of Native Bay Restaurant and Lounge in Chippewa Falls using Viking Brewing Company’s Whole Stein porter. We used Mocha Death porter from Iron Horse Brewery.

This yielded a 13×9 cake that was quite dense and moist so that just a square was enough (great served with some fresh whipped cream and a berry sauce) to feed 20 some people at my work.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons of oil or butter or use cooking spray
• 8 ounces of chocolate porter beer
• 12 ounces of dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 8 tablespoons of cubed unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
• 5 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and coat the cake pan with oil or butter or use cooking spray.
2. In a saucepan, bring the beer to a boil, and then slowly whisk in the dark chocolate until it is all melted and incorporated. Remove the chocolate beer pot from the heat and add the cubed butter and vanilla and stir until the butter is melted.
   
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients of the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
   
4. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs lightly, and then slowly pour in the chocolate beer butter vanilla mixture while whisking.
5. Using a rubber spatula, fold the chocolate mixture into the large mixing bowl, mixing as little as possible. The batter should still be liquid and drip from the spatula
6. Fill the cake pan evenly and place in oven on the middle rack. Bake for about 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean.
   
7. Cool the cake for an hour before serving with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and topped with fresh whipped cream and/or a berry sauce.
   

Mmm, dense chocolaty goodness.