Chocolate Stoudt Cake

OMG this cake is freakin' delicious and it's from one of my favorite cooking blogs Smitten Kitchen. My friend Emily made this cake the other night - it took no time at all to mix up and put in the oven. Kevin helped by drinking the other half of the stoudt and buttering the bundt pan. If only I had a boyfriend like that...

I took some pictures but they look like I drank an entire six pack of stoudt before I took them, so I will just link out to the Smitten recipe and you can see how good your cake can look. It's good to have goals. I'm pretty sure the cake will still taste fantastic no matter what it looks like.

Mmmmm, I just had a piece of the cake. Damn. Two days later the cake is just as moist and yummy. Be careful, one piece is never enough. Schedule an extra work out or two during the week you make this cake. One minor alcoholic modification was made to the Smitten adaptation - coffee liquer was used in the ganache instead of instant coffee crystals. Ganache is a fancy french word for easy-to-make chocolate frosting made with heavy cream.
Chocolate Stout Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen who Adapted from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, MA via Bon Appetit (wow, gotta give props where props are due, no matter how many people have reposted this recipe)
Cake Ingredients
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
Ganache Ingredients
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon coffee liqueur

Cake prep:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan well; make sure you get in all of the nooks and crannies. (Some people even go so far as to brush the inside of their bundt pans with melted butter–you cannot be too careful!). Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cake out onto rack for drizzling ganache.
Ganache:
For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee liqueur in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake.