Guinness & Chocolate Cake

I am really excited about this cake! I made it for Dave’s birthday back in September, well actually I made it twice because he was ill the first time around. It also seems quite appropriate to post it today before Halloween because it would be a great base for any Halloween cake because it’s so black. It also happens to be national chocolate day today – win!

Anyway back to the cake. Over the past year Dave has become somewhat of a beer enthusiast so I knew when I saw Nigella’s recipe for this I had to give it a try for his birthday. To me this is perfect as the nights get darker and it gets colder, I am not a huge beer drinker but in the winter you can on the odd occasion find me drinking a nice dark stout. If you are not a huge beer fan that is fine, it is not like this cake tastes of Guinness, don’t worry it doesn’t. It just adds a really nice depth to the cake.

The joy of this cake is that it keeps really well as it is so beautifully moist and I think tasted even better on day 2 as the chocolate flavour really enhanced. Make sure to keep it in the fridge with this frosting. Which leads me perfectly onto the frosting, what can I say other than that it is gorgeous. I love anything creamy, so I think this was always going to be a winner with me but please try this it is just great. I don’t think it will be replacing my cream cheese buttercream frosting on my cupcakes and red velvet cake but for this it is stunning. The creamy cool frosting with the dark, indulgent cake is perfect.

I have tweaked it slightly from the original recipe by lowering the vanilla content and increasing the amount of cream in the frosting. This cake and the frosting are a match made in heaven and I although there seems to be quite a bit of frosting, I don’t find it sickly. The cake will sink slightly in the middle once you take it out the oven but don’t worry the frosting will hide all.

Without further ado here you go, the perfect recipe for a cold night where you need a little chocolate-y comfort.

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Guinness & Chocolate Cake
(slightly adapted from Nigella)

Cake

• 250ml Guinness (original stout in the bottles)
• 250g Unsalted butter
• 75g Cocoa Powder
• 400g Caster sugar
• 1 x 150ml Tub off sour cream
• 2 Large eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 275g Plain flour
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

 

Frosting

• 300g cream cheese
• 150ml double cream
• 150g icing sugar

1. Start by preheating the oven to 180°c fan and lining and buttering a 20cm springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan with the butter (the pan needs to be big enough to take all the ingredients, the first time I made it I used a pan that was a little on the small side and it was difficult to mix) and heat it gently until the butter is melted then takeit off the heat. Add the sugar and sift in the cocoa powder, whisk it all together.
3. In a separate jug or bowl whisk the eggs, vanilla and sour cream together. Pour this into pan with the beer and chocolate mixture.
4. In another bowl mix the bicarbonate of soda and flour together and sift it into the large pan. Mix it all together and pour it into the prepared tin. Bake for approximately 45 minutes to an hour until firm on top and a skewer comes out clean.
5. Leave to cool in the tin. Whilst the cake is cooling make the frosting.
6. Beat the cream cheese with the icing sugar, whip the double cream until you have soft peaks and fold it into the cream cheese mix.
7. Once the cake is cool place it onto a serving plate and spread the frosting on top , leaving it quite rough on top.