Stout Chocolate Cake with Stout Sabayon

Ingredients

Stout Cake

• 1 c. Stout (Guiness or Mackeson work well)
• 1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 c. sour cream

Stout Sabayon (you can make this a few days ahead of time)

• 1/2 c. Stout
• 5 large egg yolks
• 3/4 c. packed light brown sugar
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/4 c. heavy cream (divided use)
• 1 tsp. vanilla (or vanilla bean paste, which is avail. at Williams-Sonoma but cheaper at Cost Plus)

Instructions

Stout Cake

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a cake pan.* Bring the stout and butter to a simmer in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Let it cool slightly.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soad and salt together. Set aside.

Using and electric beater, beat eggs and sour cream together in a large bowl. Add the stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and again beat to combine. Use a rubber spatula to fold and ensure batter is combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 minutes or until a cake tester is clean.

Serve with a dollop of Stout Sabayon (below).

*You can make this in a standard bundt pan and bake for 35 minutes. Or you can use a 10" cake pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.

Note: to prepare pan, brush melted butter into in the pan, flour it (or use cocoa powder), then place in fridge long enough for the butter to harden.

Stout Sabayon

Slowly pour beer into measuring cup — be careful not to measure foam. Bring beer to a boil in a small saucepan and remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and salt until well combined. Whisk in 1/4 cup cream and vanilla. Add hot beer in a slow stream, whisking constantly. Transfer to a saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, letting mixture come to a temperature of 175F. Do not let the mixture boil or you will have scrambled eggs. Custard will thicken at about 5 minutes.

Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Set bowl in a larger bowl of icey water and stir until cool. Remove and refrigerate until cold —at least one hour.

Whip remaining cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold into cold custard. Serve a spoonful over cake.

(This is also fabulous over gingerbread, baked apples or pears.)