A Not-So-Secret Recipe

 

One cold day in March of 2014, with St. Patrick's Day around the corner, I was thinking up a feast of Irish meals for dinner.  I decided I was going to home brew a very strong, delicious stout beer.  I found a recipe that had chocolate and coffee notes.  Around this season, my family makes a Jamaican stout bun, which as a kid, I always wished it was a chocolate cake.  Then the idea happened.  If all those chocolate and coffee notes were in a good stout and we can put stout in a bun, why not put it in a chocolate cake?  Okay, so I was not the only genius to come up with the idea to make a chocolate stout cake, but for some reason not many people in my circle had ever heard or thought of it.

 

The first time I made it, the love of my life went crazy for it and raved about it all the time.  Every weekend, he requested that I make one.  Every gathering he requested that I have that cake there.  I did a couple of trials and posted it on Pinterest with a little reluctance, but I wanted to share this amazing cake that I that I created.

 

I went to the local deli which was just about to close to pick up a six pack of stout beer.  There was one customer there and the cashier, who happened to be a friend's mom.  The customer said to me, "Oh I could really use one of those, too."  I replied, "Oh, well, I'm making a stout cake with it."  Both ladies asked, "What?!" and then the customer asked, "How do you make that?" Oh was I put on the spot.  I had a blink moment of caution. I thought to myself, "Well, I did post the recipe on Pinterest, so it shouldn't be a problem that I share this with her.  Plus, I do not want to be like my sister who never shares her recipes.  It's not like I'm going to open my own stout cake business one day."  So I told her to look me up and when it seemed like that would not be an option for her, I opened my Pinterest app on my phone and read her the recipe while the cashier wrote it down on a brown paper bag.  As soon as I left, I felt horrible.  I was hoping that she would lose that brown paper bag.  When I got home, I started making a stout cake with the Pinterest recipe to realize I forgot to list one important ingredient.  I hoped she was not as smart as me when it comes to figuring out recipes, but for all I know, she could be a baker herself.  I deleted the post from Pinterest immediately and texted a co-worker who told me about this book called, Blink.  The next day, I ran to my sister and told her what happened and how I know how she feels now.

 

Months went by, I decided to look up if anyone had a business that makes stout cakes.  I am sure there are bakeries out there that can make a stout cake, but so far Stout Cakes is the only one that is dedicated to making homemade, rich, stout cakes.

 

Enjoy!

 

Simone