Chocolate, Oatmeal, and Guinness Stout Cake

It's time to cast off the gloom of my previous post, and talk about chocolate cake! Chocolate Guinness cake, to be exact... I've been intrigued by the proverbial Guinness stout cake ever since my college roomies and I tried our first Guinness desserts - Guinness ice cream floats, to be exact - and while Guinness and caramel moose tracks ice cream might not be the ideal combination, I was quite confident that Guinness and chocolate cake would be transcendent. Still, the cake slipped past with the years for various reasons (beer usually isn't appropriate for a child's birthday cake, for example...) until I read about an incredible-sounding chocolate cake made with ale and oatmeal on Choclette's Chocolate Log Blog. I didn't have any ale in the fridge right then (right then happened to be a few weeks ago, although, shockingly, I still don't have ale in the fridge, just stout and Belgian white beers, but I assure you this is not due to a lack of fondness for ale), but I did have Guinness, and the earthy, nutty tones of oatmeal combined with the richness of Guinness appealed to me immensely.

I baked this cake when Emily came to visit several weekends ago (which is why I was reminded last week, when Em and her husband Aaron spent July 4th with us, that I still haven't posted about this cake, a true travesty indeed!) For while the cake was delicious upon first samplings, the day it was baked, after close to a week in the fridge something magical occurred - the intensity of the Guinness flavor deepened, the texture became gloriously akin to fudge, and we discovered the richest, most decadent chocolate cake imaginable... Never would I have dreamed a cake made with whole wheat flour and oatmeal could taste so sinful! In the best possible way, of course...

Chocolate, Oatmeal, and Guinness Stout Cake
*Adapted from Choclette's gorgeous recipe*

12 oz Guinness Stout
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup light vegan margarine
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/8 cup raw turbinado sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

~ Preheat the oven to 355 degrees F. Coat an 8X8 baking dish with cooking spray.
~ Pour the Guinness into a saucepan, and add the oats and cocoa powder. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 1 minute.
~ Remove from the heat. and stir in the vegan marg and 4 oz chocolate chips, stirring until the chocolate chips are melted.
~ Stir in the turbinado sugar.
~ Beat in the egg and vanilla.
~ Stir in the whole wheat flour and baking powder.
~ Fold in the 1 cup chocolate chips.
~ Pour the batter into the baking dish, and bake for 30 to 45 minutes - until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan before slicing, and, if you like, store the cake in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week!