Chocolate Stout Cake

This cake is the perfect chocolate cake. It has anything you would want to find in one: moist, with a great chocolatey flavor, not oily, and has a delicious ganache topping. I loved this cake so much that I`ve made it twice in the same weekend (and the fact the one bottle of Guinnes was enough to make exactly 1.5 batches was also very helpful).

I strongly suggest that you make the cake with the ganache, without it the cake is delicious, but the addition af the ganache makes it extra extra delicious. Besides of that, this cake is simple to make (though the baking time may be longer, as it was in my oven), and there is not one good reason why you would not go and buy a bottle of Guinnes right now, and run to make this cake.

Chocolate Stout Cake
Adapted from Bon Appétit, September 2002, recipe originally from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, MA (via Smittenkitchen.com)

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules

Cake prep:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan well; make sure you get in all of the nooks and crannies. (Some people even go so far as to brush the inside of their bundt pans with melted butter–you cannot be too careful!). Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cake out onto rack for drizzling ganache.

Ganache:
For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake.