Tuesday 26 May 2015

Recipe: Chocolate Guinness Cake

This cake is one of my favourites: Nigella's recipe and one of my mum's classics. You don't even have to like the drink to enjoy it (you can't really taste it...it just gives the sponge a deeper flavour.) Trust me, this is the moistest, spongiest cake you will ever try! I myself love Guinness (if you've been to Ireland then you'll know that the Guinness over there is infinitely better) so I thought I would share this recipe. Here's one I made earlier!

For the cake you'll need:
250 ml Guinness
250 grams unsalted butter
75 grams cocoa powder
400 grams caster sugar
142 ml sour cream
2 large eggs
275 grams plain flour
2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (or use self raising and leave out the bicarb)

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack.

the uncooked mixture also tastes like heaven

Now on to the cream cheese icing... (it doesn't taste of cream cheese- promise!)

For the icing you'll need:

300 grams cream cheese

150 grams icing sugar

125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together.

Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.