Milk Stout Cake with Bourbon Caramel Icing

Serves 8-10

This cake pulls on the flavors from an old barroom classic – ever tried an Irish Car Bomb? We used the deep caramelly flavors from a milk stout to add dimension to chocolate cake, and we punched it up with a bourbon caramel buttercream. If you like, salty mini pretzels will balance the sweetness of this cake and add an unexpected twist.

 

 

Ingredients

For the Cake

1 lb salted butter
4 cups cane sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered cocoa
4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup Greek yogurt, full fat
1 pint of milk stout beer, like Left Hand Milk Stout

 

For the Icing

½ cup sugar
⅛ cup water
1 t salt
5 tbsp bourbon
1 tbsp butter
3 cups buttercream ice cream, store bought or homemade

 

Directions

Cake:

1. Set the oven to 350 degrees and grease three 8’’ cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
2. In a saucepan on the stove, melt the butter, sugar and cocoa together in a saucepan.
3. Meanwhile, sift the rest of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
4. When the butter, sugar and cocoa have melted together, while still on the heat, whisk the stout beer in. When everything is combined and warmed, turn off the heat and whisk in the Greek yogurt and then the 4 eggs.
5. Fold the dry mix into the wet. When combined, fill the cake pans equally and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool fully before carefully unmolding.

Icing:

1) Make the caramel – Combine the sugar, salt and water in a heavy bottomed pan and stir with a wooden or rubber spatula to combine (metal on metal will seize the caramel). Make sure none of the sugar is stuck up against the sides of the pot and allow the sugar to boil until it reaches an amber color. At this point, turn off the heat and add the bourbon and butter.
2) Cool the caramel sauce and then fold half of it through 3 cups of buttercream frosting. Now, you can save the other half for another use, or you can use it in the decoration of the cake.
3) Once that’s combined, you can use it to frost the cake (cake must be totally cool!). If desired, you can also decorate the cake with mini pretzels for a sweet and savory combination that will complete the barroom feeling.