Chocolate Ginger Chipotle Stout Cake

I have a confession to make. This is not a new cake. I created it at the tail end of LAST YEAR’S All Chocolate! All Month! celebration, and then in the excitement of planning a slew of new spring recipes, forgot to post it. In fact, I forgot it altogether. Until yesterday.

I was plowing through the LunaCafe Dessert Pictures folder and stumbled upon a folder marked Chocolate Ginger Cake. I opened the folder and voila, there it was. The memory of the aromatic intermingling of chocolate, ginger, smoked chile, and stout brought the pictures into focus.

I had chocolate and stout cake on my mind for some time before developing this recipe, as we kept encountering variations on the theme in Portland restaurants.

Maybe the fine folks at Kells Irish Pub started it with their Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake. On the other hand, I was also under the spell of the Oatmeal Stout Cake with Praline Hazelnuts at Higgins, Chocolate, Apple & Stout Cake at Aviary, Chocolate Guinness Beer Cupcake at Papa Haydn, Ginger Stout Cake with Praline Bacon at the now long gone The Sugar Cube, and Chocolate Stout Brownie with Bailey’s Ice Cream & Whiskey Caramel at the now defunct Ten 01.

Every dessert chef in Portland was enamored with the concept. And why not? It’s a wonderful flavor pairing. It was inevitable that I would eventually create a chocolate stout cake of my own. And I did. Now, finally, here it is.

Chocolate Ginger Chipotle Stout Cake

This easy, oil-based cake has a moist and tender texture, which actually improves after a day or two, if well wrapped. The flavor is intriguing and surprisingly good, something like a chocolate gingerbread with a dark beer kick. It is wonderful plain, dusted only with powdered sugar, and divine when topped with Bittersweet Pecan Fudge Glaze.

vegetable spray, to line pan
1 tablespoon sugar, to line pan

1 cup King Arthur unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ cup unsweetened, premium-quality, natural-process cocoa
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground chipotle chile (or 1 teaspoon ground ancho chile if you prefer)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
2 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup unsulfured molasses
¼ cup Guinness stout or Rogue Chocolate Stout 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Lightly coat a six-cup capacity bundt pan or bread pan (8½ by 4½-inches) with vegetable spray. Sprinkle the sugar into the pan and tip the pan in all directions to coat evenly. Turn the pan upside down to remove any excess sugar that does not cling.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, ginger, chipotle, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Reserve.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, egg, egg yolks, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, stout, and vanilla.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Don’t overdo it or the cake may be tough.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
6. Bake at 325°, on the middle rack of the oven, for about 30 minutes, until the top feels springy and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven BEFORE the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Over baking will produce a dry cake.
7. Cool the cake on the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes or so. Turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
8. To finish, simply dust with sifted powdered sugar or prepare Bittersweet Pecan Fudge Glaze and spoon over the cooled cake. Let the glaze set until dry to the touch.
9. To serve, slice the cake with a serrated knife.

Storage   If well-wrapped to prevent moisture loss, this cake will keep at room temperature for several days; or longer in the freezer.

Makes one 7½-inch diameter bundt cake or one 8½- by 4½-inch loaf cake; about 8 servings.

Bittersweet Pecan Fudge Glaze

This lovely cake glaze remains shiny even after fully set and dry to the touch.

½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup premium-quality, unsweetened, natural-process cocoa powder
½ cup water
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup lightly toasted, roughly chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.
2. Whisk in the cocoa powder, water, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth and creamy. Don’t let the glaze get too hot.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in the pecans.
4. While the glaze is still warm, set the cake on a wire rack set over an edged baking sheet (to catch the drips and then pour the glaze over the cake. Let the glaze set until it is dry to the touch.

Makes 1½ cups.

More LunaCafe Chocolate Cakes + Tea Loaves

• Bittersweet Chocolate & Cabernet Butter Cake
• Chocolate Almond Pound Cake
• Heavenly Chocolate Beet Tea Loaf
• The Wonderful World of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• All Chocolate!

Cookin’ with Gas (inspiration from around the web)

• Closet Cooking: Chocolate Stout Cake with Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting
• Dessert Stalking: Chocolate Stout Cake Gallery
• Foodgawker: Chocolate Stout Cake Gallery
• Gorgeous Bits: Dark Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake
• My Baking Addiction: Chocolate Stout Cake
• Seattle PI: Oregon Chocolate Stout Cake
• The Bitten Word: Chocolate Stout Cake Revisited
• The Recipe Girl: Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake

Thanks for stopping by!

Copyright 2012-2019 Susan S. Bradley. All rights reserved.