Improved Chocolate Guinness Cake
- Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:
- Cook:
- Cooling the cake and icing
- More effort
- Serves 12
Skip to ingredients
Ingredients
Cake
- 250ml Guinness stout
- 250g unsalted butter
- 75g cocoa powder
- 400g caster sugar
- 1 142ml pot of sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 tablespoon of vanilla extract
- 275g plain flour
- 2.5 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
Icing
- 250ml Guinness stout
- 250g unsalted butter
- 75g cocoa powder
- 400g caster sugar
- 1 142ml pot of sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 tablespoon of vanilla extract
- 275g plain flour
- 2.5 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
- 200g of cream cheese
- 50ml of double cream
- 300g icing sugar (or as much as required for desired consistency)
Method
- STEP 1Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Centigrate (170 for fan-assisted ovens), or gas mark 4. Lightly butter a 23cm push-base cake tin.
- STEP 2Measure out the Guinness, making sure to let any foam dissipate, and pour it into a wide, deep saucepan. Cut the butter into small cubes, and add it to the pan. Heat until the butter is melted into the pan - do not let it boil.
- STEP 3In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa and sugar and whisk into the butter/beer mixture, being careful not to let the sugar catch and burn.
- STEP 4Beat the eggs and sour cream together, then add to the pan.
- STEP 5In a separate bowl, combine the flour and bicarbonate of soda, then slowly whisk into the pan, introducing a little at a time so as to not form lumps. This is really easy to accidentally do due to the density of the cake.
- STEP 6Pour the batter into your pan, and bake for approximately 40 minutes. Keep an eye on your oven - I do not recommend baking this longer as this cake can burn on the outside but not cook on the inside. When a toothpick comes out of the centre clean, your cake is ready.
- STEP 7While the cake is baking, beat the double cream into the cream cheese, and begin to add your icing sugar bit by bit. Depending on what consistency you wish to achieve, you may need more icing sugar to allow the icing to 'sit' on the cake like the head of a Guinness pint.
- STEP 8Once completely cooled (this will take a while due to the cake's density), pop your cake out of the tin and ice with a spatula (I prefer a silicone one for better control).
