Don’t worry if you don’t like Guinness. This is a dense, moist, slightly malty chocolate cake even those who don’t love the black stuff can enjoy!
This recipe is from my recipe book. Which obviously means I got it from my mum at some point!
Ingredients (makes 8 very generous slices!)
- 125 g / 4 oz butter
- 250 g / 8 oz caster sugar
- 250 g / 8 oz plain flour
- 250 ml stout (I used Guinness, but other dark beers are available!)
- 2 eggs
- 25g / 1 oz cocoa powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Method
To make your sooty cake use a 20-cm (8 inch) springform cake tin. I greased the sides of the tin and lined the bottom with greaseproof paper. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C / 160 degrees C fan/ Gas Mark 4 / 350 degrees F.
Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs to this mixture, one at a time, and beat the mixture well until they are combined.
Sieve the cocoa powder into a separate bowl. Pour a little of the stout (i.e. Guinness) into the bowl and blend the cocoa in. Add the rest of the stout and stir in.
In another bowl, sift the flour and bicarb of soda together.
Stir the contents of these last two bowls alternatively into the butter, sugar and egg mix. Stir until you have a smooth mixture.
Pour the mixture into the tin. Sit your tin on a baking tray (in case any mixture leaks out during baking) and bake for 70 minutes or until firm to the touch.
A note on cooking time: you know your oven best. My oven seems to be far hotter than the number on the dial. After 3o minutes, I had to make my Guinness cake a tinfoil hat to stop the top burning. However, this cake really does need over an hour to cook all the way through.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes, turn out onto a wire rack, and peel off the lining paper. Leave to cool completely.
You can decorate your sooty cake as you like. I decided to use a chocolate buttercream on the top and white chocolate shavings. For the buttercream I blended together 65 g butter and 130 g icing sugar until smooth. I then added 25 g of melted dark chocolate and blended again until stirred through evenly. I spread it over the top of the Guinness cake using a palette knife.
For the white chocolate shavings, I just took a vegetable peeler to a bar of white chocolate. It’s the easiest method and very effective!
You don’t have to be a Guinness drinker to enjoy this cake. It’s delicious and, strangely enough, when cut has a slight red sheen. Lovely!
If you’re looking for other chocolate cake recipes, you could try:
Mary Berry’s heavenly chocolate cake with fudge icing.
Claire Huston / Art and Soul
Thank heavens it isn’t a Fast day on the 5:2 – this looks so scrummy x
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad it isn’t as well ๐ It’s very nice. And I don’t even like Guinness!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My rum-chocolate cake’s recipe is almost the same. Yum, now I want chocolate but it’s dinner time! ๐ฆ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooooo! Rum and chocolate! Now that’s a great idea ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
My favorite cake ๐ I’ll admit anything with Rum is a favorite of mine, but mixing it with chocolate makes it even better
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ooh I don’t like Guiness but you’ve reassured me now and I want to eat this cake!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s really nice. Slightly malty but not at all like Guinness (I can’t drink it. I don’t even like the smell!).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mmm and it looks so good too!! (Me neither)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Are you sure you don’t want to move to Seattle? I could help you eat your creations…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would love to be able to share them with more people. When they invent teleporting, I’ll be sending cake to everyone ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha! And we’ll all appreciate it until we gain 100 pounds!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This looks absolutely delicious!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s lovely and the icing turned out particularly well this time too ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m so close to just sending my diet on vacation and bake myself one haha. Either that or brownies…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Guinness and chocolate cake is my absolute favourite ๐ Yum!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s lovely and doesn’t taste of the alcohol at all :-)The only downside is how long it takes to bake! Too long to wait ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh this looks lovely too. Maybe I should whack it together tomorrow as a back up to the Easter cake. Hmm i had a disaster with that one earlier (more than the sunken saga which I think might have been over beating on reflection…). I didn’t let it cool in the tin and it broke up on exit…eek!! I’m going to attempt to stick it together with icing tomorrow and ignore the gaping hole in the middle! The broken off bit i tried tastes scrummy. Anyway why I’m burbling about a different cake on this post I don’t know! But I will most certainly be trying this one, sounds really easy (not tomorrow…the other one will be a delight, just not visually). Xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
If it tastes good then that’s ok. There’s nothing buttercream can’t stick together and then cover ๐ I think I’ll be doing more brownies next as that’s always easy!
LikeLike
Guinness and chocolate cake sounds much better to me than sooty cake but that’s probably my love of the food alcohol combo ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
I still have to make mojito cupcakes ๐ Need to get the rum… Could be a good plan now summer is trying to show up!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Damn that looks delicious. I’d love to try it as in try eating it not making it because I’m kitchen challenged (i’m inventing word here, hope you get what I mean) when it comes to desserts
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s quite an easy one to put together, it’s at the baking stage when things can go wrong! I think I’m going to make some brownies next because they’re so easy and you don’t have to worry about whether they rise or not ๐
LikeLike
Great post
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! ๐
LikeLike
What an awesome cake!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! It’s delicious and something a bit different to normal chocolate cake.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome ๐ It definitely looks unique and delicious!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely…did Sam get a piece of this? ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
He did! ๐ But in very small quantities at any one time. If I’d thought about it I might have tried to give him some more to get him to have a nap – haha!
There were lots of “mmmmm” noises so I think he liked it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah bless! ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
OH. MY. GOD. Chocolate cake and beer?! โค
LikeLiked by 1 person
It sounds odd, but with the Guinness (or any other black beer), it really does work ๐
I’ve since had rum and chocolate cake recommended to me – that’s one of the future I think! ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Rum and chocolate? So, you could technically get drunk from overstuffing yourself? ๐ค
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d be willing to experiment to find out! ๐
LikeLike
Wow, that looks tasty! ๐ I haven’t heard beer cake by that name before, fun!
LikeLiked by 1 person
My mum’s always called it that so it could be an Irish thing ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not for me but I have friends that will be getting this for their birthday soon!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh good! ๐ I hope they like it!
LikeLike
Claire! I made this today. Came out great ๐๐ฐ Thanks for sharing your recipe xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yay! I’m so pleased to hear it worked ok for you ๐
You’re most welcome ๐ xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looks like it would be delicious with a guinness to wash it down with .
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m quite dull and had it with a cup of tea ๐
LikeLike
you really should open a cake shop x yum bloody yum yum
LikeLiked by 1 person
If I ever win the lottery, a bookshop with a nice cafe is the plan! ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
bliss x sounds perfect
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds really tasty Claire! I love the red-infusion of color – almost like a Red Velvet cake! ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was a nice surprise when I cut it! I’ve had it before, but I didn’t remember it taking on the red colour ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps it was a different brand of Guinness!? ๐ ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: WWW Wednesday 15th June 2016 | Art and Soul
I will have to try your fudge frosting! I have a recipe I currently use, but don’t love it so I am looking for a new one ๐
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hope it turns out better for you. It’s always been delicious ๐
LikeLike