Happy St Patrick’s Day!! Whilst I may not be Irish as a fellow Celt, I am here for any celebration that involves food, drink & merriment! Matt is half Irish so that’s my excuse! We we’re hoping to get away to visit Dublin & some of Matt’s family last year but, you know, Covid wasn’t having any of that. Whilst it isn’t looking likely that we’ll get to re-schedule our trip for this year either, at least we can still celebrate St Patrick’s Day. That usually means, getting a few bottles of Guinness & each year without fail, I will always make my chocolate & Guinness cake. It’s one of Matt’s favourites, 4 years in & it’s still the one cake that is constantly requested (personally, I think it went a long way to winning him over in the early days!).
If you’ve never tried chocolate & Guinness cake then you really ought! The dark, characteristically malt, tangy flavour of stout is best suited to three things… drinking, steak pie & chocolate cake (trust me). Guinness & chocolate is match made in heaven, each working in tandem to elevate the flavour of one another, adding an extra dimension to this dark, damp, earthy cake. To elevate flavour even more, I like to use a little rye flour in the mix. Rye is another wheat grain that’s also used in whiskey & beers, it’s slightly fruity & earthy flavour works really well against the Guinness & also helps to add a nice dense squidge to the cake.
CHOCOLATE & GUINNESS CAKE
(makes one 1.5 litre (10 inch) bundt)
Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 250ml Guinness
- 250g butter
- 75g cocoa powder
- 400g caster sugar
- 140ml yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1tbsp vanilla extract
- 160g plain flour
- 125g rye or wholemeal flour
- 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the frosting (double if you’d like to cover the whole cake):
- 75g cream cheese
- 30g icing sugar
- 2-3 tbsp milk to thin if desired
Method:
- Grease a large 1.5 ltr bundt tin
- In a large saucepan gently melt together the Guinness, butter, sugar & cocoa until everything has dissolved & is well blended together then set aside to cool slightly
- Using a jug or small bowl, beat together the yogurt, vanilla extract & eggs
- In a separate large bowl, sift together the flours & bicarbonate
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients & pour in both the Guinness mixture & the yogurt mixture
- Whisk everything together until thoroughly combined & the are no more spots of dry flour anywhere
- Pour the mixture into the prepared bundt tin and bake at 180C for 55 minutes to 1 hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, without any mixture attached
- Allow the cake to cool in its tin for 10 minutes before removing & leaving to fully cool on a cooling rack
- Once the cake is cooled, make the frosting by simply placing all of the ingredients into a large enough bowl & whisk together until smooth & pourable, add a little more milk to the mixture if it’s still a bit thick
- Drizzle the frosting all over the top of the cake, allowing it to pour down the edges & crevices of the bundt
I’m glad to hear 2018’s off to a cracking start for you. I tried Guinness cake for the first time last year and completely agree with you- somehow, it really does bring out an intense chocolatey flavour!
Thanks Rosie! It just works doesn’t it? Where did you try it?
It really does – who would’ve thought that beer in cake would be such a winning combination?! A colleague brought some into work when we had a GBBO sweepstakes last year, and then my boyfriend wanted to give it a go, so I’ve had it twice (delicious both times).
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