Chocolate Stout Cake

"This recipe was featured in an email today from the www.kingarthurflour.com website in regard to a recipe for St. Patrick's Day. NOTE: This is NOT for us dieters! LOL :-) "Stout and other dark beers are often described as having chocolatey overtones, so this combination might not be as far-fetched as one might initially think. The flavor of this cake is multi-dimensional: the presence of the stout gives it a much more interesting finish; the hops from the beer act as a counterpoint to the sugar in the cake. It's an incredibly moist cake, too, and its rich, dark color comes mostly from the beer. This recipe makes two tall, imposing layers; be sure your 9-inch cake pans are at least 2 inches tall, or use 10-inch pans if you have them. For a smaller dessert, you could halve the recipe and split one tall 9-inch layer before frosting." TIPS FROM THE KAF BAKERS: If you're using salted butter, decrease the salt in the recipe to 1 teaspoon. If you're buying Guinness in cans (they list 14.9 ounces on the label), use 1 can and make up the difference in volume with water. If you're making 2 layers, be sure your 9" cake pans are at least 2" deep. If they aren't that tall, use three 8" layers instead The batter for this cake weighs 5 pounds, 15 ounces or 95 ounces. If you have a scale, a two layer cake should have 2 pounds, 15 1/2 ounces of batter in each pan. For a 3 layer cake, each layer should weigh 1 pound, 15 1/2 ounces. If you have access to chocolate disks or chips that are pure chocolate, they'll melt more quickly when making the frosting."