Chocolate Guinness Cake

Here is an altered version of Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake. Okay, it is not a super healthy cake by any stretch of the imagination, but I was asked to put it on my site and well, it's delicious. This cake is very rich and heavy and I've used rye flour in place of white making it wheat-free. The rye and Guinness are a great combo both adding another rich dimension.

It turns out like a very professional chocolate cake you would find at a better restaurant or bakery and really simple to make. The cake is black and moist and ages very well which is good considering that it is super rich and you only need to eat a small piece. You don't actually taste the Guinness in the cake, but it adds a depth, richness and moistness that otherwise would not be achieved.

Guinness Stout has a history of being known for various health benefits. A study was done which showed that Guinness beer lowered bad cholesterol more than double that of Heineken. A research team at the University of Wisconson did a study that showed that Guinness Stout lowered the amount of clotting factors in the blood responsible for narrowing & hardening of the arteries. Guinness is also high in antioxidants. Historically Guinness was given to post-operative patients as well as new and nursing mothers as a tonic for its iron content. Guinness no longer stands behind any health claims, but a pint here and there sure is tasty!

The cream cheese topping is totally optional. Traditional Guinness cakes don't usually have cream cheese icing, but it does add a whole other dimension, albeit sweet. For a less sweet topping add in less powdered sugar. Aesthetically the topping looks pleasing as a stark white contrast against the deep, rich, black cake.

Serves: 12 slices
Baking time: 45min - 1hr

Ingredients:
FOR THE CAKE
250ml Guinness Stout
250g organic unsalted butter (or coconut oil)
75g organic cocoa powder
300g organic brown cane sugar
100g organic dark brown molasses sugar
142ml organic sour cream
2 organic eggs
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
275g organic whole rye flour
2.5 teaspoons baking soda

FOR THE TOPPING
300g 30% fat cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml organic whipping cream

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (370°F), and butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
2. Pour Guinness into large wide saucepan, add butter – in spoons or slices – and heat until the butter is melted, then whisk in cocoa and sugar. Beat sour cream with the eggs and vanilla then pour into brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in flour and baking soda.
3. Pour cake batter into greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When cake is cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and begin the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over icing sugar then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add whippping cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of a pint of Guinness.