Beer chocolate cake with orange & caramel

Time for another cake! I found a chocolate beer the other day, and just had to try it out in one of my cakes, so chocolate cake it is!

This one is delicious and gooey, and the taste of beer is more moderate than in the wheet beer mousse cake that I posted recently.

I was inspired by this chocolate cake recipe, which I've used a couple of times before - it's delicious! However, I made a few changes and, of course, added beer. And it turned out pretty great!

What you need:

For the cake:
260 grams of flour
400 grams of sugar
60 grams of unsweetened cocoa
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1.5 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
200 grams of oil (not olive oil!)
100 grams of melted dark chocolate
2 eggs
0.5 liter of chocolate ale (or any dark beer)
Zest and juice of one organic orange

For the caramel:
100 grams of dark beer
110 grams of sugar
140 grams of syrup
120 grams of cream
150 grams of butter

How to make it

The cake:
Mix together flour, cugar, unsweetened cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the oil and stir. When the oil is evenly mixed with the dry goods, add the melted chocolate and stir once again. Then beat in the eggs (remember, when adding eggs to a cake batter, always mix in one at a time). Once everything is mixed well together, add the beer.

Start out by stirring gently and then beat on high speed for a minute or two. Finally, add the orange juice and zest and stir together.

Split the batter into two and bake at 175 degrees (C) for 30 minutes. I use the same form, and bake it in two rounds. Leave to cool (beware, the cake is sticky! Cooling it on parchment paper sprinkled with sugar or greased with a bit of oil will make it easier for you when removing it later)

The caramel:
Bring beer, sugar and syrup to a boil and leave it for a couple of minutes (without stirring) before adding the cream. Bring it to a boil again and add the butter. Then again, bring it to boil and leave it for about five minutes. The texture should have thickened and the colour should be golden - if not, leave it a while longer. When it's done, leave it to cool.

When the cake and the caramel has cooled, pour over about half of the caramel on top of the first chocolate layer.

Place the second half on top of the first (yes, the caramel will run over, so make sure that the cake stand has a little ekstra room), and pour over the remaining caramel. This can be done hours before serving, so that the cake absorbs some of the caramel and turns ekstra gooey!

Chopped chocolate and orange peel can be sprinkled on top to pretty it up, or you can just eat the cake as it is.

Enjoy - and let me know how it turns out for you!

Lots of Love,
Becks