A Game of Chess posted:

For my boyfriend's birthday, I was trying to think of something awesome to make him (last year I went all out and did the full on buttercream icing/raspberry jam/layer party cake) and I decided to make a chocolate stout cake, because he loves cake, chocolate, and beer, so what could be wrong, right?

Let me preface this by saying that I love baking. I enjoy it. I find it relaxing.

This time was not relaxing. And I also need to learn to read recipes all the way through before just diving in head first because THIS WAS WAY MORE COMPLICATED THAN I THOUGHT IT WAS (it's not really that bad but I was unprepared for the amount of separate bowls and steps it required.)

The entire thing took me about two hours, not counting the icing of the cake, and I literally used every single bowl that I own and also some of my roommate's bowls.

For such a simple looking cake you would have no idea. The batter tasted great, I've never cooked with beer before (used Rogue chocolate stout) and you could definitely taste it, even before it was cooked.

Here they are straight out of the oven:

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Cooling upside down on the racks:

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That icing's got a pound of chocolate in it:

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I haven't tried it yet because he's not home. The icing is delicious though.