Although everyone knows the only thing better than your dream job is no job (that is to say, bojon), I once had a dream job that lasted 16 months when a pair of fabulous sisters opened a tiny, organic bakery in my hood. The community of bakers that wound up at Petite Patisserie consisted of smart, fun, talented, compassionate, kick-ass women, and we were all dismayed when Rachel and Kirsten decided to sell the space in December of 2007.
Me and my co-worker, Yana inside the bakery, taken by our other co-worker, Alexis
Every ingredient we used at Petite Patisserie was one hundred percent organic, although sometimes that meant altering recipes, shipping ingredients from far away, or jumping through hoops to work with what we had. For example, no one makes blanched organic almonds, so we had to buy unblanched almonds, boil them for 30 seconds, let them cool, then spend hours slipping the skins off each almond, one by one. The almonds then got dried out in a low oven overnight, cooled, and ground finely to be made into pate sucree or frangipane. Also, though many baking recipes call for dutch-processed cocoa powder, no one makes the organic stuff. Dutch-processed cocoa gets processed with alkali to neutralize its acidity, making the color a richly deep reddish-brown, and smoothing out the flavor. Some recipes work with either kind of cocoa; others, not so much.
Anyway, one day I asked Rachel if she would order some Valrhona dutch-processed cocoa powder for me through our vendor. When I came to work the next day, she had. They'd sent us 10 pounds of it. It cost $40. We couldn't send it back, and we couldn't use it at the bakery. So I took my ten pounds of cocoa powder home and started looking for recipes that used it. I had never baked with it much, for whatever reason, and even sort of shunned it, thinking that any chocolaty baked good worth its salt had to be made with actual chocolate.
Somehow I finally used up the last of my cocoa a few months ago. And now that it's gone, I miss it.
I made this cake while in the midst of a baking-with-beer phase, using an Alaskan Smoked Porter I picked up at Rainbow. The beer goes in the cake, and also gets whisked into powdered sugar to form a thin glaze which locks in the cake's moisture while it's still warm. The smokey flavor is subtle; you might enjoy it with a mug of milky lapsang souchang tea (like this organic one from Arbor Teas). The recipe, adapted from Suzanne Goin's Sunday Suppers at Lucques, originally called for Guinness, but you could use any stout or porter. Some nice options would be Bison's Organic Chocolate Stout, or their Gingerbread Ale.
This moist, springy, tender cake would make perfect cupcakes. Enjoy it with a cup of tea or coffee for an afternoon snack, or alongside a scoop of milk chocolate stout ice cream for a decadent dessert.
For more chocolate recipes:
- Pumpkin chocolate chunk coffee cake
- Gluten Free Vegan Chocolate Tart with Tahini & Caramel
- Chocolate Pudding {vegan option}
- Chocolate Cream Tart {vegan, gluten-free}
*Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this smoked porter chocolate cake recipe, I’d love to know. Leave a comment and rating below, and tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet.*
Smoked Porter Chocolate Cake
Print Recipe Pin RecipeIngredients
The cake:
- 5 ounces all-purpose flour (1 cup)
- 1 1/2 ounces dutch-processed cocoa powder (6 tablespoons)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup smoked porter (or other dark beer)
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil (such as sunflower)
The glaze:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 - 2 tablespoons smoked porter
Instructions
The cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease an 8" pan and line it with a round of parchment paper.
- Sift together the dry ingredients.In a large saucepan, heat the beer and molasses to a boil. Whisk in the baking soda. It will foam up A LOT so don't try using a smaller pan or you will be very unhappy.
- Remove from the heat.In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and oil until combined. Add the beer mixture, whisking to combine. Add the dries and whisk until smooth. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the center of the oven until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and springs back when pressed with your finger, 30-40 minutes. Cool ten minutes, then invert onto a plate, remove the parchment, and reinvert so that the cake is right side up.
The glaze:
- Whisk together to form a glaze. Spread over the top of the warm cake.
- The cake will keep well for a few days, stored airtight at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Smoked Porter Chocolate Cake
Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques, by Suzanne Goin
Makes one 8" round cake, 8-10 servings
The cake:
5 ounces (1 cup) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 ounces (6 tablespoons) dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup smoked porter (or other dark beer)
1/2 cup molasses
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (such as sunflower)
Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease an 8" pan and line it with a round of parchment paper.
Sift together the dry ingredients.
In a large saucepan, heat the beer and molasses to a boil. Whisk in the baking soda. It will foam up A LOT so don't try using a smaller pan or you will be very unhappy. Remove from the heat.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and oil until combined. Add the beer mixture, whisking to combine. Add the dries and whisk until smooth. Pour into the prepared pan.
Bake in the center of the oven until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and springs back when pressed with your finger, 30-40 minutes. Cool ten minutes, then invert onto a plate, remove the parchment, and reinvert so that the cake is right side up.
The glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 - 2 tablespoons smoked porter
Whisk together to form a glaze. Spread over the top of the warm cake.
The cake will keep well for a few days, stored airtight at room temperature.
Rosmarina says
Alanna, wow! You used to do my dream job! I am an Italian nineteen girl and I love to bake so much. I can't wait to have my degree; I'll go in England or America or Ireland or Australia or everywhere I'll be able to work in a bakery.
I loved your post! In that photo you seem like you're having a lot of fun :)
It's simply wonderful what you used to do in order to have organic ingredients. To boil unbleached almonds and cool them and peel them and roast them and ground them... it's just love. Love for baking. Love for the people who will eat that frangipane cake. To sell them something intact and sane and damn good. Love for yourself, in order to do something with your own hands and to be proud about that.
Just love. That's wonderful :D BAKING is wonderful, is... magical.
Rosmarina says
I forgot to say, I love this fantastic and wet cake. Tomorrow I'll be in Rome to meet some foodblogger friends and there I'll buy Poter beer (I'm not able to find it here). And. I'll. Make. This. Cake.
Thank you for posting and for sharing your (wonderfullllllllllllll) experience.
alanna says
That's awesome! Let me know how it comes out. You can also use stout; the original recipe calls for Guinness. : ) Hope you had fun in Rome!
Eric says
I just made this today and its pretty damn awesome. I just started homebrewing and am going to make a smoked porter next and use some of that to make this again. Thanks for the recipe.
alanna says
Oh wow, that is too cool. Best of luck with the brew!
Margo Moore says
Ziewicz makes a very drinkable beer, and a porter that I like to use in (rye sourdough) bread baking, when I can find it—local Jewel-Osco is on-again-off-again; I shall have to try Binny’s.
Next time I find it I will make your cake with it—hopefully in time for my husband’s birthday. Looks awesome.