Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake is a delicious, intense and rich chocolate experience that will have everyone coming back for more.
I have no good excuse so I am not even going to bother trying to come up with one. I do think part of it is the longer you have been sharing recipes the harder it is to find new ones to share, ergo the longer you go between posts. But if I am honest I am also just in a slower spell right now. But, as always, still here baking and cooking!
This is the longest gap I have ever had between making a recipe and sharing it (last April, gulp!) but honestly I think stout cakes are better in the fall and winter anyway. I found the beginning of this Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake recipe in Food To Love, a special edition cooking magazine that has been showing up in the grocery store lately, specifically their Fall Baking issue from 2018. My main change was to turn this into a double glazed cake: the first, a warm glaze soaked into the hot cake, and the second, a room temperature chocolate glaze draped over the cooled cake. Mostly because “That is too much chocolate” said no one ever in this house.
It was a good call–I know my audience. In this house the stout needs to be an underlying flavor, not the predominant flavor. I am the only person with an appreciation for alcoholic flavors, and even I do not love bitter stouts. That extra ounce of chocolate in the second glaze boosts the chocolate flavor up even more. Both flavors are strong and rich (the stout and the chocolate) so I would categorize this cake as really needing the whipped cream. It cools and balances the entire dish–ironically since cream is pretty rich also.
The center of this Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake cracked a bit but my kids would tell you I am ridiculous for caring. The speed with which this disappeared can be taken as a sign of how good it is–although it also might be a sign that they wish I would start baking more cakes! I tend to go in phases, and there just have not been as many cakes lately. I need to get on that.
This recipe calls for 24 oz of stout, but the easiest bottle to buy for someone who does not want extra bottles of stout was the 22 oz Guinness. I just added a little extra water to the glaze. Note that this cake has 2 glazes: a hot stout-cocoa glaze that will soak into the cake and a thicker stout-cocoa-chocolate glaze that will drape over the cooled bundt.
- 16 oz (2 cups) stout beer
- 2 1/2 oz semi sweet (62% cacao) chocolate, chopped
- 3/4 cup (6 oz/ 170 g/ 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar, packed
- 3 eggs
- 1 T natural cocoa powder, sifted
- 2 cups (252 g) AP flour
- 1 T baking powder
- 1/2 t baking soda
- 1 t fine sea salt
- 1 t cider vinegar
- 1 cup (8 oz, see headnote) stout beer
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup (21 g/.63 oz) natural unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
- 1/2 cup (4 oz) water
- 1 oz semi sweet (62% cacao) chocolate, chopped
-
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
-
Bring the 2 cups of stout to a boil in a medium-large saucepan (warning: beer boils over really easily! Keep a close eye on this!) and then lower heat to simmer for 20 minutes and reduce to 1 cup.
-
Add 2.5 oz chopped chocolate to reduced but hot stout. Stir to combine and then set aside to cool.
-
Beat the butter with a mixer (hand or stand) until creamy. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the sugar in 3 additions, beating until fluffy and scraping in between additions.
-
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the eggs and beat in one at a time, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl before each egg.
-
Whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
-
Mix the vinegar into the chocolate.
-
Alternate adding the flour mixture and chocolate mixture in 4 and 3 additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, on the lowest speed (you can also do this folding by hand but I am lazy and use a mixer).
-
Spray a 8-9 inch bundt pan with a flour-oil combo such as Baker's Joy.
-
Scrape the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
-
Let cake cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, and then invert the cake onto a cooling rack. Place foil or wax paper under the cooling rack.
-
Be very careful when making this glaze--my stout boiled over!
-
Add the 1 cup of stout, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder and water to a medium saucepan. Whisk together on medium low heat.
-
Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer, without stirring, for 10 minutes until the glaze thickens slightly.
-
Turn the heat off and remove 2/3 of the syrup to a bowl.
-
Add the 1 oz of chopped chocolate to the remaining stout mixture and whisk smooth.
-
Using a pastry brush, brush the hot cocoa-stout syrup all over the hot cake immediately after inverting. When the cake is brushed evenly all over, pour the remaining stout-cocoa syrup all over the cake.
-
Let the cake cool completely. Replace the wax or foil paper under the cooling rack with a clean piece. Whisk the stout-cocoa-chocolate syrup. If it is no longer pourable, heat it on low, stirring, until it is.
-
Let the syrup cool as much as it can and still be pourable. Pour the glaze all over the cake. If a lot drips down onto the wax/foil, you can pick it up, replace with more fresh, and squeeze it out to pour over the cake again. Repeat until all over the chocolate glaze has been used.
-
Let the glaze set completely before serving with freshly whipped cream.
Looking for a collage to pin?
Yummy, I want that!