Guiness-Molasses-Ginger cake

[Moopheus]

The wife recently made a recipe for Guinness Stout/Molasses/Ginger cake that was from Claudia Fleming's The Last Course. It involved boiling the stout and molasses together, then putting baking soda into the hot liquid, which of course immediate foams up. This is added to the batter (which includes baking powder) after the foam subsides.

Am I missing something? It seems to me that letting all of the leavener's gas dissipate into the air kind of defeats the purpose of using it. Is this step as useless as it seems?

[beccaboo]

I've never understood it either, but that's a common feature of gingerbread recipes. I always just do it when the recipe says to, and my gingerbread rises up just fine.

[Carolyn Tillie]

My Gingerbread Stout cake doesn't call for boiling at all....

Dunno.

[iguana]

Hmm-- it will neutralize the acid in the molasses, making for a cake with a less acid pH. I can't vouch that excess acid will make a poor cake, but I bet someone around here can.

[Verjuice]

Claudia Fleming's recipe for the Guinness Stout Ginger Cake makes the most marvelous ginger-anything I have ever known.

I'm not really sure how to answer your question, but I can confirm that she knows what she's talking about; the cake is wonderful and has a delightfully springy, moist quality to it that is deceptively rich.

How did yours turn out?

[pnapoli]

oh my, this sounds good. i'm going to have to track down this recipe. how is this usually served (i'm guessing plain)?

[Verjuice]

Well, she offers suggestions at the end of all of her recipes for creating composed desserts using other recipes found throughout the book. I'll check my book but I think she recommends Caramel Blood Oranges and maybe Earl Grey Ice Cream? I could be wrong.

She also mentions that it's great on its own but can be served with coffee, tea or beer!

[KarenS]

I've made this cake many times. I like to add caramelised pear or apple with dried tart cherries. Heating activates the soda.

[ComeUndone]

I've recently made this recipe. The recipe recommends to serve this cake with Ginger Ice Cream or Caramel Blood Oranges. I enjoyed mine with softly whipped cream and chopped crytallized ginger.

This cake rises a lot during baking. I speculate that adding the baking soda to the stout and molasses is to "defizz" the stout. Otherwise the batter would absolutely overflow during baking.

[Moopheus]

This cake rises a lot during baking. I speculate that adding the baking soda to the stout and molasses is to "defizz" the stout. Otherwise the batter would absolutely overflow during baking.

That was what I thought of, though I'd think a lot of the excess carbonation would be released when the liquid is boiled.

The cake came out pretty well, though maybe too strongly flavored of the molasses--we used blackstrap, so it kind of overpowered everything else.

Maybe I'll just have to try it again without the baking soda and see what happens.