Bonus Cake: Orange Guinness Cake

A lonely bottle of Guinness has been staring at my from my fridge for the last couple of weeks. I do have a Guinness recipe that I'm excited to try from my new favorite restaurant in Uptown, Muddy Waters. The chef there is an old high school chum and he shared their recipe for Guinness Ginger Cake so this cake will be coming soon!

But for this week's cake I wanted to use my orange extract so I decided to combine orange and beer. I know, right?

Cake:
1 stick butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tsp orange extract
4 eggs
1/2 cup Guinness

Frosting:
3/4 cup butter (softened)
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup orange juice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare two 8 inch round cake pans ( I line the bottom with parchment for a perfect top).

2. Cream together butter, orange extract and brown sugar.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Set aside.

4. Beat in eggs one at a time, alternating with 1/2 cup flour mixture. Beat well after each addition.

5. Gently mix in Guinness slowly, alternating with a bit of the flour mixture. 

6. Divide mixture evenly between pans. Bake for 40 minutes. This is it for the use of the Guinness, you should now drink the rest of the bottle while you wait for the cake to bake!

7. Allow cake to cool out of pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes before frosting.

8. To make frosting: Combine butter and sugar until fluffy, blend in orange juice to make the right consistency for frosting. Frost the top of one cake and add the other cake to top. Top the cake with the other half of the frosting.

This cake was tasty, though a little more of a spice cake that I had expected. I could have throw in a few shredded carrots, raisins and nuts and this would have made a great carrot cake base... hmm. I actually will try that next go around! I will also consider upping the butter content in the frosting, I had a little too much of the confectioner's sugar taste.