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I'd like to bake a Guinness flavored cocoa cake. My direction say to start by beating room temperature butter with brown sugar, then eggs and a mixture of flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Finally, incorporate the Guinness as it is. The picture show also the foam.

My question is: I'd like to heat the beer beforehand in order to have the alcohol evaporate; bring it back to room temperature and then incorporate it.

Do you think it will affect a good raising/cooking and the texture of the cake?

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  • Baking the cake itself will help evaporate some of the alcohol. (also see other answer)
    – Max
    Mar 8, 2017 at 19:36
  • Also note that any sourdough bread has some alcohol, as do overripe bananas and various other foods.
    – Robert
    Mar 8, 2017 at 20:19
  • You are going to lose like two parts alcohol to one part water to even boil it down from 4.3% to 2%.
    – paparazzo
    Mar 8, 2017 at 20:48

1 Answer 1

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Alcohol never all evaporates unless you evaporate all the water as well. The actual amount per slice is minimal anyway - equivalent to about a shot of beer in a portion, in the recipe I use. If even that's too much for you, start with de-alcoholised beer. You may have trouble finding alcohol-free stout.

From the USDA Table of Nutrient Retention Factors Release 6 quoted in merl's answer to a related question, baking reduces the alcohol to 25% in an hour and 10% in 2 hours. Quite a lot of water will evaporate as well during that time.

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  • Also see the answers to Cooking Away Alcohol for more references. Basically, baking for two and an half hours should do the job!
    – wumpus D'00m
    Mar 8, 2017 at 19:46
  • Thanks @wumpus - finding old questions on the mobile site isn't quick. I'll copy over some of the citations.
    – Chris H
    Mar 8, 2017 at 20:21
  • @wumpusD'00m the problem is that doing that reduces the volume so it's necessary to add water or else the batter will be too dry.
    – Catija
    Mar 9, 2017 at 2:24
  • @Catija Oh yes. The "baking for two and an half hours" was intended as a joke. I think the result would be akin to a charred oatcake :)
    – wumpus D'00m
    Mar 9, 2017 at 12:29

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