Last Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day and while I am not actually Irish, I figured I could pretend for a day. We are well past spending the day drinking poor quality green beer, but I still wanted to celebrate. This year I threw the corned beef and cabbage into a crock pot and focused on the most important part of the meal…desert.
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| This cake was sooooo good. |
Last year I gave up all sweets for lent, and like most years, St. Patty’s fell right in the middle of lent. This meant that I couldn’t have any of the Guinness Chocolate cake a friend of mine brought to class, so this year I decided to make it myself. I like beer, I like chocolate and I really like cake. It sounded like the perfect cake and it pretty much was.
Guinness Chocolate Cake (with Cream Cheese Frosting)
adopted from this recipe by Nigella Lawson
For the cake
1 cup Guinness
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (I added a little extra)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- Preheat the oven to 350 F
- Butter a 9 inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper
- Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan
- Add the butter a couple of tablespoons at a time and heat until the butter's melted
- Whisk in the cocoa and sugar
- Remove the pan from the heat
- Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the pan with the chocolate/butter/beer mixture
- Whisk the flour and baking soda into the pan
- Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan
- Bake for 40 minutes to an hour. Check the cake early to make sure it does not get overdone
- Cool the cake completely in the pan on a cooling rack and then remove the side of the pan
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup half & half
3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar
- Beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy
- Add the half & half and beat until smooth
- Add the powdered sugar about a cup at a time until the frosting is fluffy
- Frost the cooled cake and serve
