Chocolate Guinness Cake

Happy St. Patrick's Day

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I thought it would be a good time for my little business to launch a blog. A few things: I'm not Irish, but I do love Guinness, Bailey's, the color green, and having a good time. I'm pretty sure these attributes qualify me to enjoy St. Patrick's Day like an authentic Irish lassie.

What makes a good St. Patrick's Day party? A Guinness cake of course. I scoured several different cake recipes, did a little combining, and here's the final result. This cake is moist, has just the right amount of chocolate, and the frosting isn't overly sweet. So make a tiny pocket in your tummy after all that corned beef and cabbage for it (ladies you all know we were born with this Darwinian adaptation).   

Chocolate Guinness Cake
1 cup Guinness
1/2 cup butter, cubed
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup sour cream
3 teaspoons Madagascar bourbon vanilla paste
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Frosting
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Grease a 9 in. spring form pan (I used Wilton's cake release- it's quick and easy, if you don't have this, grease, flour and line with parchment).

In a small saucepan, heat the beer and butter until butter is melted. Remove from heat; whisk in sugar, baking cocoa and salt. Combine the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla paste (if you don't have vanilla paste substitute just regular vanilla extract); whisk into beer mixture. Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove sides of pan.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add confectioners; sugar and cream; beat until smooth. Remove cake from the pan and place on a cake stand.

And my favorite part, ice the top of the cake so that it "resembles a frothy pint of beer." You're welcome.

I jazzed my cake up a bit with a little fondant shamrock and some edible gold dust (people expect this from me).

So there you have it, go whip up your Guinness cake like the sassy Irish Mama you know you are. And as every good cook knows, you should never waste alcohol, so while you're making your cake, be sure to enjoy the rest of that Guinness you only used a cup of. Batter Up, Cowgirl!