Chocolate Stout Cake - substitutions?

[surveysays]

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

[prasantrin]

Coffee?

Failing that, there's a very long thread about finding the perfect chocolate cake somewhere in the baking forum.

[Kerry Beal]

How about some Horlicks malted milk powder?

[cteavin]

Without stout it ceases to be a chocolate stout cake. I'd add the beer and not tell anyone.

[prasantrin]

Without stout it ceases to be a chocolate stout cake. I'd add the beer and not tell anyone.

That was be a very cruel thing to do to recovering alcoholics, especially since not all the alcohol will "cook out".

From the rec.food.cooking FAQ

4.7 Cooking with alcohol A 1990 study by E. Augustin et al. found evidence that alcoholic beverages retain from 5 percent to as much as 85 percent of alcohol after cooking. This study has been used in the following table published by USDA (edited for readability). COOKING METHOD ALCOHOL RETAINED (%)

No heat, stored overnight 70

Stirred into hot liquid 85

Flamed 75

Stirred in, then baked or simmered for: 15 min 40, 30 min 35, 1 hr 25, 1.5 hr 20, 2 hr 10, 2.5 hr 5

Not stirred in, baked for: 25 min 45

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/cooking/faq/#ixzz0XsPjx389

So at 350F for 35 minutes, approximately 35% of the alcohol will be retained. And for some alcoholics, just the flavour of alcohol may be enough to cause them to relapse.

Making the cake with alcohol would be a seriously uncool, thoughtless, and just plain stupid thing to do.

[John DePaula]

I used this recipe ( here, Post #351 ) just the other day and it was quite excellent. Use Valrhona Guanaja for the chocolate and Valrhona Gastronimie cocoa powder, if available.

I split the layers in half and used a caramel ganache icing.

PS This is the thread about which Prasantrin was referring, by the way.

Edited November 25, 2009 by John DePaula (log)

[Doodad]

How the Carribean drink Malta? It is non alcoholic and has the right flavor just sweeter.

[rooftop1000]

The Malta sounds like a good idea in my local supermarket it is near the Mexican Style products

although I just tasted some toasted malted barely last week and that was pretty cool

tracey

[sugarseattle]

Yeah, I'd find another event to bake the chocolate stout cake...even if you can find a suitable replacement for the beer, just making a cake that is called "beer cake sans alcohol" seems like a rude thing to do for recovering alcoholics. If you're interested in incorporating an additional flavor component to the chocolate, luckily, there are like millions of flavors that pair well with chocolate cake and don't have booze or booze substitutes in them. However, if you do plan to do a "beer" replacement, consider calling the cake a "malted chocolate cake" or something other than beer cake just to be sensitive to your audience.

[mgaretz]

The main flavor that comes from the stout will be roasted barley. If you have a homebrew supply store near you, go pick up 1/4 lb and have them grind it for you. Then steep it in hot water (like you're making tea) for 10 minutes or so. Filter through a coffee filter and use the liquid as you would stout in the recipe. (You could also use your coffee maker using the barley instead of coffee.)

No homebrew store? Try a health food store or "natural foods market" and look for a "coffee alternative" made with roasted grains.

Last resort: Espresso powder - a double dose.

(Edited to add: While I think malted milk or malt products might taste good, stout doesn't taste like malt sugar, which is where the taste of malta, malted milk etc. comes from. So if you want the flavor of stout, malt is the wrong direction.)

Edited November 26, 2009 by mgaretz (log)

[Shalmanese]

Are there any non-alcoholic stouts on the market or are they all lagers?

[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.

[Mjx]

I realize that this is academic by now, but I think the idea of using an unalcoholic malt beverage (and cutting back on the sugar) is the best bet under the circumstances, if stout really isn't an option.

I've made a number of recipes (some of which use a significant amount of alcohol, e.g. a cup/quarter litre or more of red wine or beer), and those that are long cooked or baked have no residual alcoholic presence, nor a distinct note that suggests beer, wine, neutral spirits, what-have-you. Alcohol doesn't seem to survive lengthy cooking, although it can enhance flavour by acting as an organic solvent, and is important in that respect.

I realize that the use of alcohol in food is a serious matter for recovered alcoholcs, but when this sort of issue arises, the simplest thing to do might be to first make a trial run with all the original ingredients, take a slice from the middle, and take a good deep sniff. If you smell booze, go with substitution;

if not, then have a clean and dry friend do a blind sniff test (the recovered alcoholics I've known seem to pick up the slightest traces of alcohol much more easily than I can).

I've known several recovered alcoholics, and they were all comfortable with being consulted about alcohol-related topics.

[prospectbake]

I agree with the malted beverage idea. I've personally made stout ice-cream, both with reduced stout and a non-alcoholic version. In both I use barley malt syrup, in the non-alcoholic version I would also add espresso flavoring as well as barley tea. Did this by infusing the cream with espresso and barley tea bags. Works wonderfully! I imagine a similar application could be done with a chocolate cake.

[andiesenji]

I can't consume alcohol because I am allergic to it. Laryngeal edema that threatens to shut off my airway is the primary symptom.

I do use stout and other alcoholic beverages in cooking. I cook them before adding to the recipe which reduces the liquid and removes 95% of the alcohol - I can tolerate minute amounts - and also produces a more intense base flavor but no longer has an "alcoholic" flavor.

I have a 1-quart crockpot that I use for reducing wines, stout and fortified wines, such as port.

I set it on "high" and cook until the liquid is reduced by about half. I check the temp of the liquid to make sure it is above the level where the alcohol easily vaporizes.

I go by this chart:

Alcohol Burn-Off chart

I measure the liquid prior to cooking and again after cooking.

I have an inexpensive hydrometer to measure the amount of residual alcohol that remains after cooking.

This is backwards from the procedure used when getting ready to ferment wine.

[Yajna Patni]

I guess I don't understand if someone asks you specifically not to use something why you would do it? Regardless of how you feel about your cake, do you think if some one turned out a homeless alcoholic living under a bridge somewhere that it would be worth it so you could make the cake you felt like making?

I guess it is a pet peeve. Like cooking vegetarian, if you don't want to, fine, just say no you don't want to do it. Why use ingredients that would offend some one, and then offer the result to them? It is cruel. Not in any way nice. not what food cooked for another should be, which is a gesture of love. If you want to be cruel, tell them you think they are stupid and a pain, but don't deliberately work to defy their personal taboos. You have the right not to cook for them, but why feel you are so superior that you have to destroy someones beliefs to prove you are right

Edited November 19, 2010 by Yajna Patni (log)

[andiesenji]

I'm sorry I bothered to post.

I just tried to explain that while raw alcohol is life threatening to me, I can control the effects when I use it in baking for myself.

I would never, ever put my opinions or beliefs above that of a guest in my home.

Just as I wouldn't serve shellfish to someone who is allergic to it, I never use any alcoholic ingredients, including flavorings, when I prepare meals that must be halal, and just as I omit all pork products from friends who keep kosher and I omit all animal products from meals I serve to vegans.

However, if an ingredient has been rendered non-alcoholic by the process as I described above, my Muslim friends have no problem with it. I use these liquids to infuse dried fruits for cakes and pastries and my friends know exactly what goes into it because they have been in my kitchen when I prepared them and they are aware of the length to which I go to make sure what I serve is allowed in their diet.

[Yajna Patni]

I am sorry. I didm't mean it like that, and was referring more specifically to a poster up-thread. I just see Egullet full of people asking how to deal with other peoples dietary needs, and being told, o just dont bother, tell them its ok. I should not have posted a rant like that.