Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake for St. Patrick's Day

My husband is Irish-American. 100% Irish on both sides, so as you can imagine, Saint Patrick's Day is an official holiday in our house. Now, we aren't the green beer and pot of gold Irish, we are the corned beef and shepherd's pie dinner at home type. There must be good beer, of course, but we make sure it's Guinness and Smithwicks with a round of Irish Coffee and Bushmills for an aperitif.

Since I first picked up Nigella Lawson's Feast in 2004, I have been making the Chocolate Guinness Cake religiously in celebration of the Irish Saint’s holiday. My husband and I starting dating again in 2005 (a story for another time), but I have been an avid Guinness drinker since 1997. The glorious elixir which a friend of mine dubbed "steak in a can" has been my beer of choice since I first tasted it when I studied in London for a summer. Chocolate Guinness cake is the perfect combination of chocolate and malt without being too sweet. The addition of a tangy sour cream icing balances cake and stout.

Now, I could have left out the fact that I have made this before (If you were to pick up my copy of Feast, it would open itself to the Chocolate Guinness Cake page) and make this a cookbook challenge post, but I just couldn't lie to you. Try it and you will want to add this recipe to your annual to do list!

Chocolate Guinness Cake
Adapted from Feast by Nigella Lawson

2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup Guinness stout beer
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 batch Cream Cheese Icing (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 9" springform pan or grease and line the bottom of two 8" round pans with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl sift flour and baking soda together. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, mix butter and Guinness. Once butter is melted, whisk in sugar and cocoa powder. Turn off heat and set aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl whisk together sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Whisk in cooled Guinness mixture. Slowly mix in flour mixture until everything is incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake for 45-60 minutes for the springform pan or 35-45 minutes for the two 8" pans or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.

Cool completely. Ice with cream cheese icing (below) to look like a foaming stout pint of Guinness, pun intended.

Serves 10-12

Cream Cheese Icing

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a mixer, cream the cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add 1/2 powdered sugar then half the heavy cream. Mix until smooth. Add remaining powdered sugar and then heavy cream and continue to mix until smooth and spreadable.

As a side note, I have adapted the Guinness Cake recipe in more recent years by using Jameson Buttercream Icing and Bailey's Ganache instead of the cream-cheese icing to become what I have come to call St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes (also known as the Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes). But... I have to save something for St. Patrick's Day next year! 

#52cupcakes

Employed and Making Cakes When I Can

I'm embarrassed! It's been 9 months since I have posted anything. What a terrible Blogger I am!

In the last 9 months I have looked for a job, found one and loved it. I also completed all of the Wilton's decorating classes and even taught for a couple of months. Not as easy as it looks (which didn't surprise me) but the joy on a student's face when they create something they love is priceless! I'm just sorry that my schedule didn't let me teach any more.

December was a good cake month. I new I was starting a new job in January, so with that stress off my back, Christmas was a super creative month for me cake-wise. Here are three of the creations I made for the holidays:



I have been engulfed in starting my new job, so not until a dear dear friend of mine requested I make the cake for her son's first birthday party did I get my fingers back into the clay like fondant. She asked me to do a NY Yankees cake. What do you think?



I also made sure to make the birthday boy his own little confection to enjoy and destroy...and that he did!



I hope to keep the creativity flowing and the confections rising! Happy Summer (what's left of it, at least!)

The Decorating Class, Part III

It seems that this set of classes has taken over my life. Without a day job at the moment, this really seems to have become my world. It’s been a lot of fun!

I’ve completed 2 of 4 courses and taking the band-aid and ripping it off in one swoop and taking the last 2 class this month. It’s a lot of icing and cake, but with the weather cooler, I think my kitchen can take it.

Here are a few more examples of the new tricks and techniques I’ve learned.



This is my Course 3 final – it was a tiered cake (as you can see, duh!) and the layers are covered in fondant. The top layer is store bought fondant and the bottom is homemade marshmallow fondant - (http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm). The roses are fondant and lilies and petunia’s are royal icing.



I did things backwards and am just now taking Course 2. Here are the products of the first two lessons – (clockwise) mums, violets, apple blossoms and daisies.



Fondant and Gum Paste (the fourth class) is going pretty good too! Here are the daisies that came out of the first lesson along with the carnations we made this week. Pretty!

For anyone who's interested - it's fun and after supplies, costs about as much as a regular cooking class, but you get to keep the stuff. Here's the Wilton's Class website - http://www.wilton.com/classes/local_classes.cfm.

The Decorating Class, Part II

The class was a success! I have figured out that the rose is something that I will not soon offer up to do for free, but it was a great experience. So great, in fact, that I have decided to take another class with my friend again, Course 3.

We decided that basket weaves and more flowers didn’t interest us as much as fondant and royal icing flowers. Week one has passed and we had a whirl win class of garlands and borders reminiscent of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, as the band gathers around the gazebo in the park (they would look really good on a 4th of July cake). Other’s included a hand contorting fabric looking border and a ruffle garland that took us 20 minutes and two icing tips to master only to find out that our kit included a tip that does both steps in one shot. That was a little annoying.

All in all, this class is much more intense than the one previous. It is nice though, it is only the two of us and the teacher. My baking buddy and I are both quick to pick things up, so I think that we will walk out of this one with a plethora of information (oh, and of course $100 more decorating paraphernalia).

Next time is fondant. This is what I’ve been waiting to play with the whole time! I have dreams of a Tiffany & Co. blue box cake and actually figured out what I need to tint the fondant the color I need. YEAH! That will be soon to come, promise!

Ladies and Gentleman! – My final project for Course 1 (pre-discoloration – a topic for another time).



My Course 1 final homework, THE ROSE! These are the ones that I made at home for the final class.




Some shots of more of my prep for the final class - it was a bit of overkill with the amount I made, but these I LOVED making. So easy and so pretty! I used them on cupcakes too.

The Decorating Class Part I

So, I am taking a Wilton Decorating Class at Michael's with a good friend and baking buddy. It's interesting. The decorating style of Wilton's is very "Women's Day" and "Soccer Mom". I put these is quote becuase I don't know reallly how to describe it. It beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it's very "Mom". Because of this style, this class has given me an additional challenge.

My personal style is a clean line, contemporary look or at the opposite end of the spectrum, a very rustic, made in a wood burning oven in 1600's English country side look. This class takes me beyond my comfort zone and into an area I'm not so sure about. The techniques are good and easy to pick up, but this class, as any good class does, is giving me the additional challenge of creativity. I don't automatically think like the buttercream roses and scalloped boarders that I am learning to do. What do I do with this new knowledge and how do I integrate it into the creative thinking that I already have going?

This is my first class project. Everyone did the same thing. I don't think it's too bad for a first try, though I do know that I need to keep practicing if I want someone to pay for something I made someday.



My homework is done for tommorow (all frosting made) and hopefully I'll have a few great roses to show next time!

Taking this class has also sparked an interest in fondant (something close to a sugar fabric that you can use to cover cakes for a smooth finish - VERY popular on wedding cakes these days) and wanting to try that for it's clean lines and flexability. The challenge in that - finding a fondant that tastes good as well as works well. Traditionally, fondant takes like, well, nothing. It can have flavor, but it's usually very gummy and most eat around it. I'll keep you posted on my search.

For anyone who's interested - it's fun and after supplies, costs about as much as a regular cooking class, but you get to keep the stuff (including the creepy clown heads). Here's the Wilton's Class website - http://www.wilton.com/classes/local_classes.cfm. I'm taking Course 1! You can also take them and eventually teach them. That's what I think I'm going to work towards!