Chocolate and Ale Cake

A very naughty and delicious piece of decadence for your friday :)

Chocolate and Ale Cake

Ingredients:

140g Butter

280g Sugar

3 Extra large eggs (at room temp)

180g Sasko Cake Flour

70g Cocoa

2 tsp Baking powder

250ml Milk Stout/Ale

Ganache Icing:

180g Dark chocolate

250ml Cream

1 tbsp Milt Stout/Ale

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180*C and grease and line 2, 23cm baking tins.

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric beater on medium speed until combined, scraping the sides of bowl occasionally.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions until you have a thick, pale consistency and all the sugar has dissolved.

Sift the cocoa, flour and baking powder together before adding to the butter mixture along with the ale. Fold through until just combined.

Pour equal amounts of the batter into the 2 lined baking tins and even out the surfaces with a spatula.

Bake for approximately 16 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean.

Allow to cool.

To make the ganache icing: heat the cream in a small pot on the stove until it’s warmed through then break the chocolate into it and stir on the heat until it’s dissolved then add the ale and stir through.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool until it’s thick enough to ice the cake. (If it becomes too thick you can always pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen it.)

Place the first cake on a serving plate and top with 1/2 of the ganache.

Top with the second cake and drizzle over the remaining ganache.

Tip 1: Preheating the oven is very important – if the oven is not the right temperature it will effect the way the cake rises – cakes should also be baked in the centre of the oven as the top of the oven tends to be hotter than the bottom.

Tip 2: To bring eggs to room temperature from the fridge put them in lukewarm (not hot) water for 20-30 minutes.

Tip 3: Don’t skip the sifting of the flour, cocoa and baking powder – cocoa is notorious for forming little clumps, which remain in the batter and affect the texture of the cooked cake. Sifting also helps to distribute the baking powder and gets more air into the batter.