Chocolate Stout Cake

I was trying to think of a fun place to start my idea station.  Then I realized where is a better place to start then a chocolate cake made with beer! Excellent idea!
I have always pined for the Highland Stout cake at the French Broad Chocolate Lounge in Asheville, NC.  It's absolutely divine.  Every time we visit this amazing restaurant I HAVE to order this cake.  Everything on the menu is amazing (I have tasted other desserts), but I can't help myself. This cake is just too good to pass up!
Anyway... I had been debating on how I could recreate this dessert at home. One January day I was reading the December 2010 issue of Real Simple magazine p. 266 and there it was! A Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake!
I decided to wait till Valentine's day to bake this creation.  Also I had to modify the recipe because I don't own a bundt pan.  But that was okay, I wanted a cake.

So this is what I came up with.  The cake recipe is a slight variation of the one from the one in Real Simple and the buttercream recipe is something I found on foodnetwork.com from Paula Deen.

Chocolate Stout Cake with Coffee Buttercream

Cake:
1 cup softened unsalted butter, plus more for pans
2-1/2 cups flour, leveled
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup stout beer (such as Guinness)
12 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped or chips
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 heavy cream

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 2 8x8 pans. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
-In a small saucepan, combine butter and stout. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until butter is melted. remove from heat and add 8 oz. of chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
-Use electric mixer, beat eggs and sugars on medium-high until fluffy. Beat in the chocolate mixture and sour cream. Reduce speed to love and gradually add flour mixture until just combined. (do not over mix)
-Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs, 30-45 minutes. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes then invert onto a rack to cool completely.
-In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add remaining 4 oz. of chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle on cake after icing.

Coffee Buttercream:
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
1/4 cup strong coffee, cooled

-Mix with electric mixer the sugar and butter until smooth. Then mix in coffee.
-Ice cake when completely cooled.
-Do a layer of icing between the two cakes as you stack.

I also added some crumbled up Ferrero Rocher chocolates on top and dusted it with cocoa powder. It was great.  It even got more moist throughout the week. Just be sure you have more than just your significant other to share this cake with. Its a big one and very rich!  But not too sweet.

Enjoy!