Iain & Stu's (Scandalous) Guinness Cake

so keeping with the whole "icing well" theme, i baked a cake for iain and stu featuring a secret ingredient - their most favourite bevvy in the world - GUINNESS!

sounds gross, but chocolate and guinness are really yummy together - the bitterness of the guinness is very complimentary to the rich chocolaty goodness.

i was very excited to find the recipe for this cake, which i heavily adapted from nigella (who else?) and will post below because this cake KICKS ASS.

seriously.

IAIN AND STU'S (SCANDALOUS)CHOCOLATE GUINNESS CAKE

FOR THE CAKE:

1 cup guinness
10 tbsp butter
1 (350 gram) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla (make it REAL vanilla)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda

FOR THE ICING:

1 1/4 cups icing sugar
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup whipping cream

DIRECTIONS:

1a. turn on your oven to 350 degees.

1b. get 2 8-inch cake pans (round or square, i prefer square), butter them and pour a bit of cocoa inside them, shake it all around and then tap it out hard into the sink so you're left with a fine chocolate coating inside the pan. this won't really add to the tasty-quotient, but it will prevent your cake from sticking to the pan. while you can use flour instead of the cocoa it might leave white stuff on your cake.

2. pour the guinness in a saucepan, add the butter, and put over medium heat until the butter melts. fyi: if you have some sort of aversion to guinness or are too lazy to get your ass to the liquor store, you can use coffee instead. while the butter melts, put the chocolate chips in the microwave, and nuke 'em for about 1-2 minutes depending on your micro. when the butter melts, remove from heat and add the melted chocolate and both sugars. if you wanna be a real star, stick the sugars in the food processor and grind them up real fine before you add them in - this makes a more tender cake. but it's not necessary. whisk it all up to blend.

3. in a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. add to guinness sludginess. stir it up, little darlin'. add flour and baking soda, and whisk until sexy and smooth.

4. pour into prepared pans and bake about 40 minutes until the cake is firm and doesn't leave any batter on your bejeweled cake-tester. or toothpick. be safe and check it after 30 minutes, cause ovens can vary dramatically.

5. for the icing, combine all ingredients and whip 'till smooth and creamy. trust me, it likes it.

6. wait until the cake has cooled, then remove from pan and ice only the top of cake so it looks like...a pint of guinness. if you wanna be fancy, decorate with gummy coke (pseudo-guinness) bottles or grated chocolate like i did (see pics). or you could make it festive using rainbow coloured sprinkes. or for the minimalists among you, just enjoy its humble while purity.

7. have your cake, and eat it too.

___

i know it seems like a lot of trouble to attempt what i've just written down, but hey - baking's a lot more fun drunk, and you'll have lots of left-over guinness (the cake only needs one cup). or, you can always invite a couple buddies over, get drunk on the extra guinness, and make them do all the work. whatever you do just make sure you have a fuctional oven timer, a fire extinguisher, and don't do anything stupid (that i wouldn't do).

but trust me, even if you just do like i did and listen to mark kermode podcasts while beating the icing into submission, this cake is dead easy and really fucking good.

enjoy!