Image courtesy of Just-Eat Toronto.
Hey everyone! So I’ve been a little AWOL because I just got back from my trip and I have tons of things on my plate like packing, working, and moving all before mid August where I’ll be working at a music camp for two weeks! Yay! But unfortunately that does not leave a whole lot of time for food blogging. As such, I have a guest post for you from Just-Eat =)
I should be able to post some homemade gnocchi and some yummy Vietnamese foods (but vegetarian!) in the near future.
Enjoy!
Chocolate & Guinness Cake
Beautiful cake is comfort food at its best. Baking is also an immensely therapeutic and calming experience – and a lot easier than people think. Get the equipment and ingredients ready and just follow the recipe for sure fire success. Cakes make amazing gifts for when you don’t fancy leaving it around your house for greedy family eyes or just want to add a personal touch. This chocolate & Guinness cake is the perfect example of an indulgent giftworthy cake.
Guinness in a cake?
Don’t fret over the concept of Guinness in your cake though! It’s not used for flavouring, but more to create a dense and moist texture that nothing else I’ve found has come close to matching. Guinness is a heavy and almost syrup like stout, and this helps the moistness remain through a long and intense oven session. You won’t taste it afterwards, but will be blown away by the ‘chocolatiness’ and texture of the dark sponge.
In terms of equipment; you’ll need an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius, a 22cm cake tin (preferably spring form), a large sauce pan, a whisk and some weighing scales. There’s nothing particularly hard to get hold of here, making this the ideal recipe for someone short in the equipment department. You’ll need an electric whisk for the frosting though – but this cake can take great without it, so icing is optional.
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- 250ml Guinness
- 250g butter
- 400g caster sugar
- 80g cocoa
- 150ml sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 275g plain flour
- 2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda [baking soda]
FOR THE TOPPING:
- 250g Philadelphia cream cheese
- 150g icing sugar
- 150ml double or whipping cream
Method
- Start by melting the butter in a pool of the Guinness on the [stove]. Use a large saucepan as eventually all the ingredients will end up in this pan. The boiling temperature of the stout is fairly low, so make sure you don’t have the heat up too high.
- Weigh out the sugar and add the cocoa powder to it. Pour this into the buttery beer and use a mixer to fully incorporate it. Keep beating so there are no lumps and the mix goes a dark chocolate colour.
- Add the sour cream and again beat the mixture to make sure it is mixed well without lumps.
- Take the pan off the low heat so it can begin to lightly cool. Crack the eggs and beat them into the mix and add the vanilla extract. [I would suggest doing this rather quickly otherwise the eggs might cook]
- The plain flour and bicarb soda [baking soda] can be added now and this will have to be mixed for around five minutes to get the consistency perfect. The mix will thicken up now but will still be fairly liquid. Although it is hard work to beat such a viscous mixture it needs to be done.
- Pour the mix into the tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean with poked.
Simply make the frosting by using an electric whisk to beat heavy cream with the icing sugar and cream cheese. When the cake has cooled (this can take up to 4 hours) you can cover the top with this sweet creamy frosting and serve it! Wrap the cake with a bow and top to your liking for the wow factor.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored guest post from Just-Eat Toronto.
