Author Notes
This delicious, dark cake is what happened when: 1) I modified Smitten Kitchen's gingerbread cake (that she adapted from the Gramercy Tavern version) to use butter instead of vegetable oil; 2) tweaked the spices to mimic those in Zingerman's Gingerbread Coffeecake; and 3) adapted it for high-altitude (7,000 feet above sea level). It is still very, very dense. And delicious. —monica
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Ingredients
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1 cup
Guinness or other stout
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1 cup
dark molasses (not blackstrap)
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1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
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2 cups
plus 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
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1/4 teaspoon
baking powder
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2 teaspoons
ground cinnamon
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1/2 teaspoon
ground nutmeg
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1/4 teaspoon
ground cardamom
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20
cloves, run through spice mill
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1-2
grinds black pepper or 1 Balinese long pepper, run through spice mill
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12 tablespoons
butter (1 1/2 stick)
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2 tablespoons
fresh grated ginger
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grated zest of 1 orange
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1 teaspoon
vanilla extract
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3
large eggs
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3/4 cup
granulated sugar
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3/4 cup
brown sugar
Directions
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Mix Guinness and molasses in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and add baking soda (it will foam up). Set aside to cool.
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Preheat oven to 375°. Generously butter and flour a non-stick Bundt pan. (Seriously, I have a great non-stick Bundt pan, and I've had this cake stick if I was skimpy on the butter/flour.)
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Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, and pepper) in a large bowl.
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Melt butter, add ginger and orange zest and let cool slightly. Beat in vanilla, eggs, and sugars.
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Mix wet (butter/egg and Guinness/molasses) mixtures into dry. Don’t over-mix, batter will be thin. Pour into Bundt pan, and bake about 50 minutes. A tester will come out with a few moist crumbs, and cake will pull away from sides of pan slightly. Cool cake in pan 5 to 10 minutes. Turn out onto wire rack (fingers crossed!) and let cool completely. (If you do lose any chunks, pull 'em out of the pan and set back on cake — dusting it lightly with powdered sugar camouflages a great many cracks.)
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Cake is definitely better the next day. Dust with powdered sugar, and/or serve with whipped cream.
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