Happy St Patrick's Day!

 

Okay, so I'm not Irish; but any excuse to whip up something delicious, right? I'm also not a beer drinker at all, but Guinness is the first thing that springs to mind when I think of Irish-related foodstuff. There are many recipes on the www for baked goods using Guinness, but I like the wonderful recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cake that Nigella published in my favourite cookbook of hers, 'Feast'. I've made this before a few years ago, but I have quite forgotten what it tasted like, so I decided that for this year's St Patty's Day, I would opt for this recipe again.  

 

I normally follow her recipes to a T, but for cakes, I like to use my own mixing method, that is the say, the traditional long way of incorporating the ingredients. Nigella assures readers that certain shortcuts, like throwing everything in a food processor, produces the same result for a damp cake, but I'm just old-fashioned like that. I think I followed her written instructions last time though, which might account for the differences this time round.

 

 

 

The cake was lovely and dense, dark and lusciously moist, like a mud cake. Looking at the high butter content though, you'd expect something similarly rich. (Yes, it's a very naughty cake, but every once in a while, you have to treat yourself!). I think I recall the last attempt being just as dark in colour, but drier in crumb. Perhaps it's because I overbeat it last time? I was a bit disappointed that the centre of the cake sunk a bit upon cooling, but I remedied that by slightly leveling out the top. The taste and texture were thankfully not compromised. Instead of making the suggested cream cheese frosting (for me, cream cheese belongs in the cheesecake realm), I made a chocolate ganache to frost the cake. I had intended to serve it with vanilla bean chantilly cream, but decided it would be too heavy. I ended up serving it with a scoop of the Connoisseur Cafe Grande icecream that I just so happened to have in the freezer - okay, so maybe it's just as heavy - if not more so - than whipped cream, but the coffee and Grand Marnier flavour, plus the crunch of almonds, complemented the rich chocolate cake very well.

 

You can definitely smell the presence of the Guinness in there, and you can somewhat detect it tastewise too, although it's not at all strong. It adds a nice dimension to the flavour of the cake. Nigella suggests allowing 12 servings per cake; however, it could probably feed a lot more. I would recommend eating it in thin slices, because it's very (deliciously) rich! 

 

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone! :)