Birthday Guinness Cake

Yes! That is snow you see in the background

It has been a busy few months with the big move and basically a new life in a new place. After about a month, I finally managed to unpack all my baking supplies and found new homes for them on E's kitchen shelves or he is sure to correct me "our" kitchen shelves. All this happened just in time too greet my parents visit and also some dear friends and also to warm the house as the mercury level here drops. Since then I've managed to bake up some delicious pecan sticky buns and others which I will share at a later time but for today it's E's birthday cake! Since he loves Guinness and with my parents around (to help eat the cake!) I decided to make a Guinness Cake courtesy from Nigella Lawson. The only criticism from E was that it wasn't Guinnessy enough...I suppose I will have to tweak it for next year then. This cake is so easy and absolutely delicious to make. Please make and enjoy.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
Makes One 9-inch cake and serves about 12

Cake Ingredients
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Frosting Ingredients
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 180°C or 350˚F, and butter and line a 9" springform pan.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter in pieces and heat until the butter’s melted, at which time whisk in the cocoa and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the butter beer mixture. Whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda until mixture is smooth. Pour the cake mixture into the springform pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour until firm to touch. This is a damp cake so cool completely in the pan.


When the cake is cooled, whip the cream cheese until smooth and sieve the icing sugar over and beat together. Slowly add in the cream and continue beating until light and fluffy. Remove the cake from the pan and spread the frosting on top of the cake to resemble a delicious frothy pint of Guinness.