Chocolate Guinness Cake!
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Loading... - Gracie Johnson
- 01 Jun 2022
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One of the requests I have had over and over recently is chocolate cakes made differently… whether that’s with courgette, mayonnaise, or anything else… there are so many ways to make them. However, as it’s St Patricks day next week, I thought I’d give the chocolate Guinness cake a go!
When you add ‘random’ ingredients to a sponge, it can create the most wonderful texture. Mayonnaise cake works as mayonnaise is essentially just eggs and oil, so ingredients you often find in a cake anyway! Courgette can bring a level of moisture… Guinness brings all of it. It creates a delicious sponge that I adore.
I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of drinking Guinness, but in cake?! oh my days – an absolute winner. But just as a quick one, if you don’t like Guinness or want something that isn’t alcoholic, replace the Guinness with full-fat Coca Cola.
When you think of this cake, you basically need to think of my chocolate fudge cake, with a couple of changes. My fudge cake uses ingredients such as melted chocolate, buttermilk, and so on, but this cake does not need that. It’s not quite a standard chocolate cake either, but it’s in the middle!
The mixture comprises of a butter (I usually use a baking spread in the sponge, but not for the frosting!), the Guinness itself, cocoa powder, light brown soft sugar, whole milk (never use less than whole milk!), eggs, plain flour and bicarb. This may all sound a bit of a jumble, but TRUST ME, it works.
As I often do these days, I use light brown soft sugar in my chocolate cakes because I love the flavour that it makes. You can use caster sugar if you want, or if it’s what you have though – or even dark brown soft sugar for an even deeper flavour. The Guinness does bring a flavour itself though, so make sure to remember that.
I always use the same cocoa powder when baking because its 100% powder and it’s delicious – but any work really! Generally hot chocolate powder should be avoided as it doesn’t behave the same, and often has sugar added in so tastes different. I try and always be consistent these days with my eggs, so I always use medium. If you need to use large, use two!
Now one bit that may confuse you the most, is the plain flour and the bicarbonate of soda. This is not the same as using self raising flour – as the bicarbonate is there for a reason. Baking powder and bicarbonate of soda are different ingredients, and cannot simply be switched – so make sure to use the plain flour.
The mixture is quite runny once made, but trust me, it’s meant to be. Split the mixture evenly between two lined tins, and bake until beautiful. Make sure to cool the cakes fully before going anywhere near the decoration as otherwise the frosting will melt off almost straight away! And no-one wants that.
I decided to use a cream cheese frosting for this recipe as it would compliment the cake so well, and make a change to a normal chocolate buttercream frosting. If you are unsure on cream cheese frosting, please don’t be scared – I have a back to basics post on my cream cheese frosting here which explains it completely to help you out!
The little dash of vanilla in the frosting is so complimentary of the cake, and some chocolate shavings on top just finish the cake off perfectly. Obviously, if you love Guinness, have a glass on the side… or just devour a slice of the cake like I do! Enjoy!!
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Cooling & Decorating Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 15 minutes
Servings: 15 slices
Ingredients
Cake
· 175 g unsalted butter
· 150 ml Guinness
· 50 g cocoa powder
· 250 g light brown soft sugar
· 125 ml whole milk
· 3 medium eggs
· 250 g plain flour
· 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Decoration
· 150 g unsalted buter (room temp)
· 150 g icing sugar
· 300 g full-fat soft cream cheese
· 1 tsp vanilla extract
· Chocolate shavings
Instructions
Cake
Preheat the oven to 160ºc/140ºfan and line two 20cm/8" round tins.
In a pan, add the butter, and heat until melted.
Take the pan off the heat, and pour in the Guinness, cocoa powder, sugar, milk and eggs.
Whisk the mixture together until smooth.
Add the plain flour, and bicarbonate of soda, and mix briefly until smooth. Read More…
