I made this cake for a bake-off at work, this being the boozy-cake challenge. My boozes of choice were Lindeman’s Framboise Lambic, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey and Chambord. This turned out to be a very moist cake, so chilling the cake before trying to manipulate it is definitely recommended.

Ingredients

Cake
1/2 cup stout
1/2 cup sweet raspberry lambic
1 cup butter
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa, dutched, for stout cake half only
1/2 cup raspberries, for raspberry lambic cake only
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache:
4 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 jigger whiskey

Filling:
1 cup for whipped cream fill
2 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 jigger Chambord
1/2 cup raspberries

Instructions

For cake:
Heat oven to 350F. Well butter 2 9″x9″ baking pans. In one heavy saucepan pan, bring 1/2 cup stout and 1/2 cup butter to simmer over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly. In another pan, bring 1/2 cup sweet raspberry lambic and 1/2 cup butter to simmer over medium heat. 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 1/2 the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add 1/2 flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. In the other bowlm, add lambic mixture to 1/2 the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add 1/2 cup raspberries. Add 1/2 flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold respective batters in the separate bowls until completely combined. Marble the two different batters together in 2 9″x9″ baking pan, without muddying them.

Filling the pans 2/3 to 3/4 of the way. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, rotating them once front to back if your oven bakes unevenly, about 20 minutes. Cool cakes on a rack completely.

For filling:
Using electric mixer, beat cream, powdered sugar, framboise (if desired), Chambord and vanilla in large bowl until very firm peaks form. Tramsferwhipped cream mixture to small bowl and chill. Fold raspberries into remaining whipped cream mixture. Spread on top of one cake, then put the other cake on top of it. Chill cake and filling, then slice the edges of the cake so they are 90 degree angles.

Ganache:
Heat 1/2 cup whipping cream to steaming, then pour over chocolate chips in a heat safe bowl. Wisk until combined. Add whisckey and whisk again. Put in fridge 1 hour to make more solid, then spread over trimmed cake, so it covers evenly.