surveysays

Thanks for all the suggestions and input everyone. I think what I am going to do is try to find some Malta, and failing that, replace the stout with a coffee substitute that contains barley, like Tecchinno or Inka. That would have a sweeter flavor than coffee, along with some of the roasted barley flavor. I think sugarseattle has a good point about making "beer cake sans beer" so I will call it malted chocolate cake or something else depending on what I put in it.

I recently sampled an amazing chocolate cake made from a recipe using stout. I don't know the exact recipe, but I imagine it was something similar to this: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Stout-Cake-107105 A chocolate cake has been requested for an upcoming birthday party, and I would love to make something similar, but the guest of honor and several other people are clean and sober (i.e. recovering alcoholics) so it would be really inappropriate to make a cake that has beer as an ingredient. I know the alcohol cooks out of it, but just the idea of baking it with beer seems disrespectful. So, what I am wondering is, 1) does anyone have any suggestions for what I might substitute in place of stout (apparently the malt is something that contributes to the flavor of the cake), or 2) does anyone have a good recipe for a comparably moist, dense, and flavorful chocolate cake? Many thanks, Lewis