vanilla porter frosting recipe from: http://ducksoven.blogspot.com/2012/02/chocolate-oatmeal-stout-cupcakes-with.html
Cake Ingredients:
1 ½ cups Chocolate Stout (I used Young's Double Chocolate Stout)
½ cup strong black coffee
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably *Dutch-process - I used Hershey's Special Dark)
4 cups all purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups sour cream
Chocolate Icing Ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips)
1/2 cup powdered sugar (optional)
Vanilla Porter Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup vanilla porter (I used Breckenridge)
1 cup (4 sticks) room temperature butter
4 cups powdered sugar
For the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter three 9-inch round (recipe suggests 8 inch...they definitely would have overflowed) cake pans with 2-inch-high sides and line with parchment paper. Butter paper.
(tip - people have said you can half the cake recipe and use 2 8-inch rounds)
2. In heavy large saucepan over medium heat, bring stout, coffee and butter to a simmer. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly (I ended up putting it in the fridge while doing the next steps).
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. In another large bowl (use a VERY large bowl...there is a lot of batter), use an electric mixer to beat eggs, vanilla and sour cream til blended.
4. Add stout-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat until just combined, taking care the stout mixture is cool enough that it will not cook the eggs. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. Divide batter equally among prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to rack; cool 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto rack and cool completely.
For the Chocolate Icing:
1. Bring cream to simmer (NOT a boil!) in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours. (I was impatient and after about an hour put it in the freezer - it worked well just keep an eye on it. When it gets thick, put it back in the fridge until you are ready to use it.)
2. Before frosting, I beat in a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar because I was worried about the frosting being too thin at room temperature. This step is optional.
For the Vanilla Porter Frosting:
(I doubled the recipe from the link above)1) bring 1 cup vanilla porter to a low boil over medium heat. Let boil for about twenty minutes, or until it has been reduced to about a quarter cup (maybe slightly more). Let cool.
2) Beat four tablespoons of the porter with the room temp. butter until the butter is light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time and beat with a mixer until it has reached desired consistency. (you may need less powdered sugar than the recipe calls for).
Frosting and Putting the Cake Together:
Place bottom layer of cake on the serving plate and spread a layer of the vanilla porter frosting over it. Add the next cake layer and try to center it as much as possible. Again frost with the vanilla porter frosting and add the top layer of cake. It may be a good idea to cut the cakes so that the layers don't have rounded tops. however I did not do this, and filled in the gaps on the side with more vanilla porter frosting. Next, frost the top layer with more vanilla porter frosting. This layer can be slightly thicker than the others. Finally, use the chocolate icing to frost the outside wall of the cake, being careful not to mix the frostings. There will be left overs of both frostings. Use them to decorate. I piped the chocolate icing around the top and bottom. I took a little but of chocolate icing and microwaved for about 10 seconds til soupy and drizzled over the top of the cake.
