Science · vs. · Romance

As promised, I will post the recipe for the cakes that I did so that you too can make your very own chocolate Guinness Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream Cream Cheese frosting. Sounds like a mouthful...of butter!

*******************************************************
For the cakes:
I used 7 inch springform, 9 inch springform, and 11 inch round pans for the cakes.
For a wedding cake, I made this recipe five times (2 for each 9 inch and 2 for each 11 inch), but cut the fifth recipe in 3/4 for a 7 inch cake round (which I sliced into two parts). Next time, I might have to lower the 9 inch recipe a tinge to make sure that the cake does not overfill and collapse in the pan during rising. (Something that it is supposed to do for the original).  I also recommend round pans instead of spring forms.  I don't know why it came out more even for me this way, but I have to say I had the easiest time with the round pan(although I love springforms and use them for flourless chocolate cake and other sundry cakes).

Chocolate Guinness Cake (Ganked from the New York Times with commentary from yours truly)

TOTAL TIME
1 hour 15 minutes

For the cake:

* Butter for pan
* 1 cup Guinness stout //Old Rasputin did work very nicely in this recipe.  Murphy's stout did not.  Guinness is decent.
* 10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa  //mix of Ghiradelli sweetened and Dagoba/Fair Trade Cocoa.  Never used Hersheys and don't want to.
* 2 cups superfine sugar (C&H makes a decent one for bakers)
* 3/4 cup sour cream //Used more like 2/3rds here.  May even go with less next time..like 1/2.  Cake was almost too moist.
* 2 large eggs
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract //Found some great bourbon Madagascar vanilla on sale at Home Goods, full of flavor
* 2 cups all-purpose flour //Used Cake flour and regular flour and can't tell the difference
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda //Used 2 tsps to get it to settle down and also can't tell the difference in leavening

Preparation

1. For the cake: heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper //Used a substance called BaKleene, but Bakers Friend is also supposed to be good  but spray lightly.  Cake comes right off.// In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.
2. In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add to Guinness mixture. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to one hour. Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.

YIELD
One 9-inch cake (12 servings) //A good idea if you are pressed for time is to make the recipe 6 times, not changing measurements and just use the rest for cupcakes (which you can freeze for later or take to the wedding).   This way you use the same measuring cups, spoons, bowls, mixer, and you do not have to worry about cross contamination or changing the amounts too much.  

For buttercream, I used Torrie's recipe from Smitten Kitchen which I fell in love with while I was testing out frosting for the couple that I made the cake for.    In case you want a primer on frostings: This will teach you a wealth of information including what you should make if you need something stable for an outdoor summer wedding.

The recipe quoted from SK:
2 cups of egg whites (approx. 12 large)
3 cups sugar
5 cups butter, softened (2 1/2 pounds, 10 sticks)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.

Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. (Here’s a tip: when you transfer to the mixer, make sure you wipe the condensation off the bottom of the bowl so that no water gets into the egg whites. This can keep them from whipping up properly.)

Add the vanilla.

Finally, add the butter a stick at a time and whip, whip, whip. //Really, it will be smooth, I promise.

*************************************************************

I filled the cake with this one to retain the vanilla, but also wanted to do a cream cheese frosting exterior.  After using the following string in google 'swiss buttercream meringue cream cheese' I came up with this recipe seen here for swiss buttercream cream cheese I learned that all you really had to do was to make sure you added the right proportion of butter (about equal 500g to 500g) and then you would get something resembling a stable cream cheese frosting.

My frosting did not look as velvety as the picture on the website, probably due to not following directions, but it was delicious.  I would make it again assuming I could somehow melt away fat during my sleep cycle with magical infrared beams.

Assembly:
Fruit: Purchased from the Farmer's Market that Saturday.  I picked some Strawberries, Blackberries, and Peaches, all in season in spite of it being so late.  I took these fruits and hulled them into managable sizes and then I sprinkled some lemon juice from fresh squeezed lemons and a few tablespoons of sugar.  I stored them in tupperware to be placed on the cake at the wedding.  The only thing I would change here is to actually drain the juice off with the paper towel, because otherwise you might have a tell-tale stripe running down your cake (which did look pretty but was obviously unintended).

Decorations:  I did manage to do some piping practice on the cake but the piping did not fit in the container so I decided that I would do it at the venue or leave the cake bare.  Instead of piping, I used flowers and fresh fruit to make it look earthy and late-summery.  It worked very well with the centerpieces and the setting, so I was pleased and so were my friends.  If you need to pipe, I recommend metal tips and a ziploc sandwich bag with the zip part removed snipped in the corner.  If you need to pipe well, this is a bad blog to look at.

I might go into more detail with this tomorrow, but I decided not to go with dowels due to the fact that this was an outdoor wedding and there was no kitchen so I pretty much had to get the final product there in a timely fashion and leave it out.  Instead, I had this brilliant idea of using some of my old heavy academic textbooks and a table cloth purchased at a party supply store for very cheap.  I staggered the cakes Olympic style using height variations.  I had the luxury of stealing some centerpiece rocks and twigs.  Aside from the table cloth being slightly less opaque than advertised, it looked pretty decent.

Next time: MISTAKES!!, how to fix a janky lookin' cake, planning considerations, finagling cheap items from shady purveyors, fresh flowers vs. fake, edible flowers, and whether would I do this again (the short answer is yes, if it is the right person)..