Chocolate Guinness Cake

This is a belated birthday post for a colleague of mine who celebrated a special birthday recently.  She invited me to a lovely BBQ and I made Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake to bring out the Irish in her :) I have made these previously in a cupcake form with the addition of baileys ganache and buttercream but this cake is on a whole other level. It's really moist and soft and absolutely delicious with the cream cheese frosting on top. A definite hit at the party I think! 

I also made a Victoria sponge cake for her actual birthday. It was made very late at night and some of my writing icing tubes had dried hence the rather wobbly writing. I don't think anyone took too much notice as the cake disappeared very quickly. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIOBHAN!! 

For the cake

250ml guinness

250g butter

75 cocoa powder

400g caster sugar

142mls sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275g plain flour

2.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the topping

300g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

125mls double or whipping cream

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Butter and line a 23cm springform tin. 
• Pour Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. 
• Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and the pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. 
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour.  
• Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack as it is quite a damp cake. 
• To make the topping, lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth.
• Sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. 
• Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. 
• Ice the top of the black cake so it resembles the frothy top of Guinness. 

Recipe for the sponge cake can be found here