Chocolate beer cake.

The combination of chocolate and beer isn’t new, I hear they even have a chocolate beer out of Sapporo now, but I never considered it a viable option until recently. I figure it was an inevitable next step though, on account of my beer drinking finally catching up to my chocolate eating. A large beer costs about a dollar here, much more affordable than wine, and there is a great chocolate by Barry Callebaut available affordably called Belcholat (be sure that the quality if much better than the name suggests). I offer these two facts by way of explanation only. Hic.

Which brings me back to the idea of mixing beer and chocolate. I mentioned it to my Mum when she told me that she needed to take a plate to a school do. In a case of unfortunate timing her pot-luck lunch was the day after my CELTA course finished, which means I drank a bunch of bia hoi and then came home to make these cakes. Actually I drank a load of beer, then I came home and ate some chocolate, it was at this point that I knew these cakes would be a raging success. Plus they are super easy to make, even an exhausted half drunk girl on a sugar high managed it. I also made a batch of rum balls as a backup in case I didn’t make it home. She took both to school and now her colleagues keep inviting me to bars.

These cakes aren’t overly beery, the dark beer or stout used provides a subtle undertone that is almost unrecognisable. The addition of warm spices combined with the beer and cocoa enhances its chocolatiness and rounds out the flavour to make it seem as though real chocolate were melted through the batter.

Even in my woozy post-intoxicated state one of these miniature cakes slathered with coffee chocolate ganache was devoured instantly. Like a vacuum cleaner followed by muted exclamations and sighs and the eyeing off of the next perfect taste of chocolatey beery goodness.

The cake containers were returned the following afternoon, empty. Thumbs up, no?

Chocolate Beer Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s Chocolate Stout Cake. I made mini cakes in a muffin tray because, well, it is the only cake tin I have access to. This mixture makes about 24 mini cakes (I think, I made these late at night after an evening at a bia hoi, eating chicken hotpot, drinking fresh beer and breathing second hand smoke. Regardless of my state, these baby cakes were swoon inducing, indeed).

1 cup stout (Guinness, but I used Dai Viet Beer)
225g unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Ganache:
100g dark chocolate
3 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee (I used Nescafe Cafe Viet)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease 2 12 cup muffin trays really well. Heat beer and butter in a medium sized pan over medium heat. When it starts to simmer, remove from heat and whisk cocoa powder through, taking care to stir out any mischievous lumps.

Sift flour, sugar, baking soda, spices and salt together to mix. Beat eggs and sour cream together until thoroughly combined. Pour chocolate/beer mix into the eggs and beat to combine. Fold dry ingredients in until just combined. Ladle batter into prepared pan and bake for about 10 – 15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. If you don’t have two muffin pans, or have only one shelf in the oven (I can raise my hand for both those categories), the mixture is ok to sit out for the 10 to 15 minutes that these babies take to cook.

For Ganache: Heat cream and coffee in a small pan. When bubbling remove from heat and stir through chopped chocolate. Continue stirring until chocolate has melted and is glossy and thick. Cool until it is the correct consistency for icing. Ice cakes when they are completely cool.

These cakes will keep for a few days in an air-tight container, and benefit from being warmed up if kept refrigerated.