Current mood:	accomplished
Entry tags:	beer, cherries, chocolate, cream cheese, dessert, liqueur, photo, photos, recipe, recipes, trifle, wine

Young's Double Chocolate Stout Trifle
The name is elusive, because there's really a lot more in there, but I couldn't very well call it the "Young's Double Chocolate Stout, Lindeman's Framboise, Kahlua Cream, and Port-Soaked Chocolate Cherry Trifle."

Whatever it wishes to be called, here it is:







I have to preface this with admitting that, yes, this dessert is evil...evil to the point that my beloved elsrik and I were literally cackling as we were putting on the finishing touches. Bwah ha ha.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout Cake



I adapted this from the Guinness Chocolate Cake that was posted recently. I thought the Guinness cake sounded wonderful, but since it was a chocolate cake, I thought...why not use a chocolate stout, instead? The trifle was born when, as is my nature, I just couldn't let that one adaptation be enough, and I decided that I had to throw in some sort of raspberry sauce made with Lindeman's Framboise, my favorite Lambic ale as of late. Since I wasn't sure how easily the cake could be sliced into two layers, I decided to go for the trifle, though for anyone who might wish to make this into a layer cake, it is so dense and compact that it slices very easily with a bread knife, so it could be quite easily turned into a lovely layer cake.

Ingredients

1 c. Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1 stick + 2 T. unsalted butter
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. sour cream
2 eggs
1 T. vanilla
2 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
2 + 1/2 t. baking soda

Method

Heat butter with beer until melted in large saucepan. Remove from heat and whisk in cocoa and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat together sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Temper egg mixture with some of the warm cocoa mixture, then combine the egg mixture and the cocoa mixture in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add in flour and baking soda mixture and mix well.

Pour batter into a 9" springform pan that has been greased and dusted with cocoa powder. Bake for 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from springform.



Lindeman's Framboise Coulis



Ingredients

1 c. fresh raspberries
2 c. Lindeman's Framboise Lambic Ale
1/4 c. sugar
1 T cornstarch
2 T cold water

Method

Soak raspberries in 1 c Lindeman's for 1 hour. They should plump up and absorb about half the liquid. Over medium heat, heat remaining Lindeman's with raspberries and any unabsorbed Lindeman's until gently boiling. Add sugar while stirring constantly, then simmer mixture until about half the liquid has cooked off. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch in cold water until blended, then add this to the raspberry mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it cook for one minute, stirring as it thickens. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool and thicken. Strain raspberries with cheesecloth or a food mill (I used a fine sieve) to remove all seeds.

Kahlua Cream Filling

Ingredients

1 8 oz package Neufchatel cheese (you can use cream cheese or marscapone cheese for this, as well).
3 T. sugar
2 T. Kahlua coffee-flavored liqueur

Method

With hand mixer or in stand mixer, cream together all ingredients until smooth.



Kahlua Whipped Topping

Ingredients

2 c. heavy whipping cream
2 T. sugar
2 T. Kahlua coffee-flavored liqueur

Method

Combine all ingredients in a chilled stainless steel bowl or in the chilled bowl of a stand mixer. Whip to stiff peaks with chilled beaters. Be careful not to overwhip, or you'll end up with Kahlua butter.



Port-Soaked Cherries and Chocolate Topping

Ingredients

1 cup fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted (I used Bing cherries)
2 T. Port (I used Graham's Six Grapes)
2 blocks dark chocolate confectioner's coating

Method

Soak cherries in port overnight. Drain cherries, reserving liquid.



Melt confectioner's coating in double boiler and coat each cherry thoroughly and let cool on wax paper.



When finished, there should be about 1 T. chocolate remaining in the double boiler (if not, just use another block, if you wish). Stirring constantly, pour in enough of the remaining port liquid to make a thin sauce (it took about 2 T. for the chocolate I had left). Let the sauce cool slightly.

Trifle Assembly

Cut the cake into four quarters and slice each into generous chunks.



Line the bottom of a deep trifle dish with 1/4 of the cake chunks.



Drizzle 1/4 the raspberry coulis over the chunks. You don't want to completely cover the chunks, just distribute some of the sauce evenly over each chunk.



Add another 1/4 of the cake chunks.
Drizzle 1/4 the raspberry coulis over the chunks.

Add the cream cheese mixture (I added all of the topping at once as I only made enough for one good, thick layer. You may wish to double the amount of cream cheese topping and use it for two layers, but I felt that having this one layer worked out fine (and, well, I didn't want my bowl to overflow). Another possibility would be to gently fold the cream cheese mixture with the whipped cream mixture and just have one Kahlua cream mixture; however, I wanted a distinct "heavy, creamy" layer and, since everything else is so rich and heavy, a forgiving "light, fluffy" layer, so that's why I didn't combine the two.

Add 1/2 the whipped topping



Add 1/4 the cake chunks
Drizzle with 1/4 the raspberry coulis
Add remaining cake chunks
Drizzle with remaining coulis.
Top with remaining whipped cream.
Scatter cake crumbs over top of whipped cream.
Drizzle chocolate port sauce over top of cake (I used a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off).





Arrange cherries over top of trifle.

Voila



Chill for at least 12 hours before serving.

Here's what was left after my party:



Sliced with a side of raspberry sorbet: