This is the second recipe review from my monthly feature on the Hummingbird Bakery’s ‘Cake Days’ recipe book.

When I mentioned to Mr S that I was going to review this recipe, naturally it was given the thumbs up ( hmm, no prizes for guessing why!).

This cake recipe is ideal for those celebrating St Patricks’s Day or Father’s Day.

I was curious about baking with Guinness and chocolate combined in a cake.  It wasn’t that I didn’t think the flavours would work together, it was that I’ve usually used beer or ale in baking savoury pies.

Also I personally don’t like the taste of Guinness on its own, so I was keen to see if my taste buds could be converted when using it in a cake.

I used Guinness Original Stout in this recipe, as it could be bought in a single bottle. Mr S informed me that this is different to the draught bought in cans, so I’m not sure what effect this would have on the cake.

I followed the exact recipe and cooking times and this cake turned out a treat!

Initially you taste the chocolate, followed by a slight, subtle taste of the Guinness. It tasted really good, even though I don’t like Guinness. The sponge is so incredibly moist, and the tang of the cream cheese frosting compliments the moist, dense, richness of the cake.

Recipe

For the Cake

250ml (9fl oz) Guinness

250g (9oz) unsalted butter

80g (3oz) Cocoa powder

400g (14oz) Caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp Vanilla essence  ( I used extract instead)

140ml (5fl oz) Buttermilk

280g (10oz) Plain Flour

2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

½ tsp Baking Powder

For the Frosting

50g (1 ¾ oz) Softened unsalted butter

125g (4 1/4oz) full fat cream cheese

300g (10 ½ oz) Icing Sugar

Cocoa Powder for dusting.

Method

1. Grease and line the base of a 9 inch (23cm) spring form cake tin
2. Preheat the oven to 170C (325F)
3. Pour the Guinness into a saucepan and then add the butter and heat gently until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and sugar into the warm mixture.
4. In a bowl, mix the buttermilk, vanilla essence, and eggs together. Add this to the mixture in the saucepan.
5. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a mixer or hand held whisk. Mix on a low speed and add the mixture from the pan. Mix thoroughly until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for approx 45 minutes.
7. The cake will be baked when the sponge bounces back when pressed lightly and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let the cake cool down, remove from the tin onto a wire rack and set aside until it has completely cooled down before adding any frosting.
9. To make the frosting, using a mixer or hand held whisk, mix the butter and icing sugar together until it is fully combined and smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix on a medium speed until light and fluffy.
10. Cover the cooled cake with the frosting, and lightly sieve a dusting of cocoa powder on top.

For this recipe and other Hummingbird ‘Cake Days’ recipes check out the book via amazon here:

This entry was posted on Friday, June 3rd, 2011 at 8:30 am and is filed under Baking Recipes, Cakes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.