So I had orange curd leftover from some macarons I made last week, and I had a ton of chocolate leftover from a disastrous attempt at making eclairs, and I had a bunch of stout in my refrigerator because all I do is drink, so I put it all into a cake!
This cake is for real guys. Even the infamous @nutmegandhoneybee said it was one of the best cakes she's ever had! Super moist, super dense, ridiculously chocolaty, just lightly specked with sour hints of citrusy orange, but not tasting at all like one of those disgusting chocolate orange balls wrapped in gold tin foil that you can get at Rite Aide while picking up your prescriptions... It's like a giant slightly floral truffle but better because there's beer in it. Anyway, when I was finished making the cake it had been at least 24 hours since I had watched Elf, so I threw some candied orange peels on top and watched Elf again.
Butter Count: 55 Tbsp
CAKE:
2 cups Guinness
32 Tbsp (4 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
4 cups flour
4 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup greek yogurt
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch cake pans and line the sides and bottom with parchment paper.
2. Heat the stout and butter in a large pot over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add the cocoa powder and mix until fully incorporated and there are no lumps. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool.
3. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
4. Add the eggs and yogurt into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until well combined. Add the stout mixture to the beaten eggs and continue mixing until the mixture is combined and smooth. Lower the mixer speed as low as it will go, then slowly add the flour mixture, folding the sides in with a rubber spatula until fully combined.
5. Pour the batter equally into the three cake pans. Bake the cakes about 40 minutes, until a cake tester can be inserted into the centers and comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a rack 10 minutes. Remove the cakes from the pans and continue cooling on the rack until they reach room temperature.
ORANGE CURD:
2 medium oranges
1/2 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed and sieved
1/2 cup sugar
6 egg yolks, beaten
7 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1. Combine the zest and juice in a pot. Add the remaining ingredients and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly.
2. Constantly whisk the mixture over medium-low heat, 20-30 minutes until the mixture is fully thickened and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Be sure to whisk both around the sides of the pot as well as the center to make sure none of the eggs cook and form chunks in the mixture.
3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap so that the plastic is touching the surface of the curd. Place the curd in the refrigerator for about 2 hours until it is cold and fully set.
***BUTTERCREAM:
32 Tbsp (2 cups) butter, softened
2 lb confectioners sugar
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1. Mix the soften butter with the confectioners sugar and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until the butter has lightened in color.
2. Slow the mixer to the lowest speed and add the milk and cocoa powder. Increase the speed gradually and mix until creamy, adding additional powdered sugar if needed for a stiffer mixture. The buttercream should be quite stiff so that it can stand up to the weight of the cake.
3. Transfer the buttercream to a piping bag fit with a large circular tip.
GANACHE:
2 cups heavy cream
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
10 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1. Bring the heavy cream to a simmer over medium heat. Remove it from the heat and add the chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted, the mixture is smooth, and it has a silky sheen.
2. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap so that the wrap is touching the ganache surface (this prevents a skin from forming). Refrigerate the mixture at least 2 hours.
ASSEMBLY:
1. Slice each cake in half, lengthwise.
NOTE:This step is important. The cakes are dense, so if they are not halved, they will be too heavy and the cake will bulge. As you can see in the picture above, I did not have 8-inch pans so I used two 9-inch pans and only made two layers, and didn't slice them lengthwise. The cakes were extremely heavy and caused the filling to ooze out the sides. I covered it up with ganache, but it was still annoying.
2. Pipe a buttercream boarder onto all but one cake half. Fill each boarder with orange curd so that it reaches about half way up the boarder. Top the curd with more buttercream. ***2 batches of buttercream may be needed depending on the size of the piping tip.
3. Stack the topped cake halves on one another, with the un-topped cake half at the top of the stack. This sentence is confusing, but just read it carefully and you will get it.
4. Use an offset spatula to spread any buttercream oozing from between the layers onto the sides of the cake. Refrigerate the assembled cake at least 4 hours.
5. Remove the ganache from the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature, at least two hours. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and use an offset spatula to apply a very thin crumb coat with the remaining buttercream. Refrigerate the cake another 2 hours at least.
6. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and spread the ganache over the top and sides in an even layer, smoothing it out with an offset spatula.
7. Top the cake with candied orange peels and whatever non-poisonous flowers you can find around the house.