Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake with Baileys Cream Cheese Icing

By DreiFromBK

St Patrick’s Day is on Sunday and it’s always a good excuse to add booze to desserts! I added Guinness beer to the batter of the dark chocolate cake, giving it a rich and slightly bitter depth which contrasted beautifully with the sweet Baileys cream cheese icing. This is possible one of my favourite chocolate cakes to make now, moist and dense but not too heavy.

Ingredients

• Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake
• 250 ml Guinness beer (1 cup)
• 250 g butter (1 cup + 1 tbsp)
• 100 g cup cocoa powder (2/3 cup)
• 400 g caster/superfine sugar (1 3/4 cups)
• 140 ml sour cream (2/3 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 250 g plain flour (2 cups)
• 2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
• Baileys Cream Cheese Icing
• 500-600 g sifted icing sugar/powdered sugar (4-5 cups)
• 100 g butter at room temperature (1/2 cup)
• 250 g cream cheese at room temperature (8oz)
• 4-6 tbsps Baileys Irish Cream (to taste)

Preparation

Step 1

Dark Chocolate Guinness Cake

Preheat oven 180°C/350°F and butter and line a 23cm (9") springform tin.
Melt the butter into the Guinness in a saucepan over low heat.
Whisk in the cocoa and sugar and take the saucepan off the heat.
Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl until combined, than add to the beer mixture.
Whisk in the flour and bicarb until combined.
Pour the cake batter into the tin and bake for an hour. The middle of the cake may still be slightly wet when you take the cake out, but it will firm up as it cools down.
Leave to cool completely in the tin as it is quite a damp cake and could collapse.

Baileys Cream Cheese Icing

Cream the butter and icing sugar together until well mixed.
Add the cream cheese in cubes slowly until incorporated.
Add in Baileys. Continue mixing for 5 minutes until the icing is light and fluffy.
Dollop lashings of the icing onto the top of the cake to recreate the froth on a glass of Guinness. If you are feeling particularly dexterous, slice the cake length-wise and fill the cake with the icing too (there will be definitely be enough icing).