What is a girl to do with an open can of pumpkin puree and half of a six pack of Saranac's Pumpkin Ale? Bake a cake, naturally. Stout cake is my favorite cake of all time and it's fall and I adore pumpkin, so you see how this came about. It turned out even better than I had imagined though not as pumpkiny as I had anticipated. It's more like an ultra moist chocolate cake with hints of fall.
2 c. Pumpkin Ale
1 c. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. cocoa powder
2 c. unbleached flour
2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 T baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
4 egg whites
2 c. natural cane sugar
2c. sucanot
2 1/2 c. pumpkin puree
cream cheese frosting.......if you need a recipe just ask, otherwise I don't feel like writing it
Grease/oil and flour 2 deep 8" round pans or two standard 9" pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Simmer beer and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter has melted. Then dump the cocoa powder into the beer and butter, and whisk until smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Combine all dry ingredients and set aside.
Beat eggs and egg whites until bubbles start hanging out on top. Next add the sugars and beat on med. high until thick and light colored. Next add the pumpkin puree and mix on low just until incorporated. Now, add a bit of the beer mixture and mix on low (this will warm up the eggs so that they won't scramble as they would if you just dumped the whole thing in at one time.) Begin adding beer, slowly, to the egg/pumpkin mixture until it's all one color. It's time to add the dry ingredients. Stop the mixer and carefully toss in the dry ingredients. Mix on low until flour is mostly combined, stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then increase the speed and mix vigourously for 20 seconds(ish).
Pour batter into prepared pans, and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 35ish minutes or until tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Try not to open the oven until the 20 minute mark. Surely, the cake shouldn't be done until 30 min. at the least. Check at 35 and bake further if needed. When the sides of the cake pull away from the pan, that's another clue that it's done. It should also bounce back when poked in the center. Cool for about 12 min. then remove from pans onto a cooling rack. Once the cake is cool, not just "it doesn't burn my mouth or my hands while I eat it" cool, but cool to the touch, which might take, ugh, a few hours (best to chill in fridge for a bit if you are short on time) frost, bring to room temp. and serve. I opted for the rustic, middle and top but no side frosting look. Good idea for this cake so that you don't overshadow the cake with frosting.
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