I made this cake to celebrate our January birthdays of my husband and our youngest son who turned 32 this year. He really likes beer and even brews his own. I used 4 – 8 inch round cakes. I also used a foam cake board to sit the cake on. I felt that it would help the stability if I could press the dowel into the board. When I cut the cake, however, I found the dowel did not penetrate the foam board. So I guess the dense cake and the Canache I use was enough to keep it all together. The cake recipe I used was Chocolate Stout cake. It is intensely chocolate. I baked them the night before then put them in the refrigerator so they would be cool when I was working with them. Then instead of frosting in between the layers I used a layer of Chocolate Ganache. I used a bar of Ghirardelli 86% Cacao, (broken into pieces), (heavy cream to cover the pieces. Nuked it for 1 min on high, stir, add about 3 heaping tablespoons of sugar, stir, 30 seconds on high in microwave, stir, another 30 seconds. The cake recipe made a brownie like cake that made a firm cake and the Ganache glued it together making it like one solid piece. I had no slippage even with a cake that was over 8 inches tall. I got the idea for this cake from the post by Michael Almeida. Thanks Michael. I was unable to do it like he did and had to figure out what to do to get the effect on my own. First, I don’t like fondant. The frosting recipe I used was Swiss Butter-cream. I used three colors, white, gray, and yellow. For the handle I just used some white chocolate. I put some Wilton white chocolate pieces in a freezer bag and nuked it twice for 30 seconds. Then I cut the tip off and squeezed it out on a piece of waxed paper into a handle shape. Than I refrigerated it. I made it the night before so I had to guess the size and it was a little big, but I covered that up with the beer head so it didn’t look to big. I trimmed excess chocolate off with a paring knife after it was firm to make it smoother and rounder. I made two batches of Swiss Butter Cream. The first batch was all yellow and I used it to cover the cake tower. After is set in the refrigerator for a couple hours it was easier to smooth the surface.
The second batch I took a little, about one to one and a half cups and colored it gray and about 1/2 cup yellow and the rest white. I used the smooth side of the basket weave tip and circled the top and bottom of the cake. Then I made a vertical line from top to bottom six times dividing it into six sections. Then I stuck the handle in the side. I used a 1/4 inch dowel for the pouring can. The problematic part is how to get the angle so the can is at angle from the part used to form the pouring beer. Michael used screws. This just seemed to much trouble. I wondered if I could cut the dowel half way though and leave the back attached and bent. This didn’t work because the dowel was too dry as most lumber is. If however you have some green wood it might work for you. When I bent it, it broke so I decided to just use packing tape to hold it together. That was stiff enough to hold the angle up a little and pliable enough to bend. Make the cut by putting the end of the dowel into your empty can and mark it at the point where it comes out of the can. Then hold the dowel up to your cake and judge the length you need to go to the bottom of the cake and still leave enough sticking out so that you can make the stream of beer. Stick the dowel into the cake but don’t put the can on yet. Using a small to medium pastry bag and a large round tip (nine or bigger but not bigger then 12), pipe the yellow icing along the straight dowel to make it look like a stream of beer go along the dowel from the surface of the cake to the bend in the dowel where you’ll put the can. Put the can on the dowel. Now it’s time to make the froth or beer head. Using a large pastry bag and a number 1A tip fill it with white frosting. Pipe the foam on the top of the cake in large dots with a swirling motion to keep from forming to many points. Cover the top, around the dowel and running over the sides. That’s it. Your done. Unless you want to add some script for saying Happy Birthday or what ever, lol. I hope this was helpful to you. It went over very well.