Baking
57 recipes
If you only needed one chocolate cake recipe this would be it. This is the one.
Jo Cooper (nee Choii) introduced me to this amazing cake -– and I mean amazing. She is a fantastic cook, and I knew we were in for a treat at her dinner party, and this blew us all away. It has a depth from the Guinness beer that is hard to describe, malty but more – and is light at the same time, particularly with the fluffy, creamy icing. It is meant to look like a Guinness!
The recipe is based on a Nigella Lawson cake, yet Jo likes to add slightly more Guinness and sour cream to prevent the cake from being too sweet, and a little extra fluffy cream for the icing.
It is also extremely versatile – the recipe can be doubled, even tripled, or turned into cupcakes. Adjust cooking times.
Recipe provided by Jo Cooper (Our Tamarama kitchen cookbook author).
Serves 12. V.
Pictured: Chocolate and Guinness cake
Ingredients
- 300ml Guinness - if you intend to drink the remainder, the can is far tastier then the bottle as it has the award winning widget to keep the beer smooth and creamy.
- 250g unsalted butter
- 80g/¾ cup cocoa
- 400g/1 ¾ cup caster sugar
- 150ml sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence
- 275g/1 ½ cups plain flour
- 2½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Icing -
- 250g Philadelphia cream cheese
- 150g icing sugar, sifted
- 175ml thickened cream – not double cream as it is too rich, yet you are looking for a thicker cream than pouring or single cream.
- Preheat oven to 180°C.
- Butter and line a 23cm spring-form tin.
Method
Measure out all ingredients first - In a wide saucepan, melt the butter in the Guinness, once melted remove from heat, then add the cocoa and sugar and whisk til smooth.
In a separate bowl, beat together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla, then whisk into the beer mixture.
Whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour (sometimes more depending on your oven), til a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake. Do not be concerned with how runny the batter is - it will cook through evenly and sets perfectly during the cooling process in the tin - see below.
Let cool in the tin - do not turn out til it is cool or the cake will fall apart.
Icing - whip the cream cheese and sifted icing sugar together, then beat in the cream til fluffy and can hold shape well enough to spread over the cake.
Carefully lay the cake on a serving plate and smooth icing over - the contrasting colours can make for the illusion of the icing being the froth on top of the beer!
Dietary preferences
- Vegetarian
