from Paces / epicurious / Barrington Brewery, MA / me!

Notes from the original:

"I am a lifelong chocoholic and have eaten many a piece of chocolate cake," writes Elizabeth Means of Williamsburg, Massachusetts. "Never before, though, have I enjoyed anything as much as the chocolate stout cake at the Barrington Brewery in nearby Great Barrington. If I could get a copy of this recipe, I would be eternally grateful."

The dark beer known as stout gives this cake an intense, not-too-sweet flavor.

Amelia has made it, however, and says (Tue, 29 Jul 2003 18:38:42 -0400 (EDT)) of it:

"i made the chocolate guinness cake from your website and my entire family now thinks i'm some sort of culinary goddess. it wasn't all that hard, either. only problem is the size of the recipe, which is: huge. i made a double and ended up with three overflowing 13 by 9 cakes.

"but DAMN, that's good stuff."

12 Sept 2004:
By the time I got around to actually making this recipe, I was vegan. A little ingenuity and a lot of substitution goes a long way, however, and the truth is that chocolate and stout were just meant to be together. Non-vegan original is here.

Note that the quantities below are for a normal-sized, non-layer cake.

• 1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
• 1 cup oil (either just canola, or half olive) (note: should try using earth balance!)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1.5 t baking soda
• 3/4 t salt
• 2 replaced eggs (En-Er-G Egg Replacer is perfect here)
• 2/3 C silken tofu, blended with ~1 T lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Oil & flour a 9-inch round cake pan with high sides (springform perfect).

Bring stout and oil 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 salt in large bowl to blend.

Blend the tofu and lemon juice together, and then add the egg replacer powder and water.

Add tofu mixture to the stout-chocolate mixture pan, and beat just to combine.

Add chocolate mixture to flour mixture, and stir/fold batter until completely combined. Put into pan. Bake until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes (or more?). Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.

Makes 1 good-sized cake.

Bon Appétit
September 2002
R.S.V.P.
Barrington Brewery, Great Barrington, MA

Veganized by nori, 12 sept 2004