We started in Colonial times, and have now immediately rocketed to the present. One of the hallmarks of modern cakes mentioned in the book is a trend towards celebrating local ingredients, so I wanted to be sure and do that, if possible.
The opportunity presented itself when Tiddy's friends told us they were having a stout party. There would be plenty of stout beers around, as well as two stout stews. I don't like drinking stouts, but stout stews are consistently amazing, so I knew the flavors can really work in cooking.
We told them we'd take care of dessert, and I turned to the Chocolate Stout Cake recipe. It's easily the most massive cake I've ever made. Three full layers of chocolate cake, with ganache frosting between each layer, and covering the entire outside. It took four sticks of butter, four cups of flour, four cups of sugar, and almost two full bottles of beer. I selected the Oatmeal Stout offered by our local Schlafly brewery to embrace local flavors, and because I thought a hint of oatmeal would work well with the chocolate. I got started on baking, dirtying just about every dish in the house.
When I was done, it was towering. It was so tall, I couldn't fit the dome of the cake plate on top. We had to secure it for the car trip by putting a plastic bag over it and by me keeping a death grip on the edges of the cake plate and doing balance exercises that would make a gymnastics coach proud, while Tiddy took turns like an eighty-four-year-old.
But it paid off! The stout stews were delicious, and the gigantor cake tasted pretty good, even if it did put the whole party into a food coma within ten minutes. Maybe next time I'll go for something a little daintier.
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