Not one for cutting corners, I suppose you could compare my style of cooking to that of Nigella Lawson: quite decadent.
No low-fat this, or sugar-free that, please. Just common sense and sharing what some might call the guilt, but what I like to call the delight.
This chocolate Guinness cake is absolutely no exception. There's so much butter and sugar in this bad boy, I advise total and complete denial.
Just enjoy yourself.
Recipe from Nigella Lawson
For the cake
- 250 ml Guinness
- 250 grams unsalted butter
- 75 grams cocoa powder
- 400 grams caster sugar
- 142 ml sour cream
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 275 grams plain flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
For the topping
- 300 grams cream cheese
- 150 grams icing sugar
- 125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)
Method
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
- Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the 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 then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
- Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
- When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
- Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.
