💌 Chocolate Guinness Cake Supremacy 💌

The only cake I've ever loved (or even liked tbh)...

Dec 21, 2023

Welcome back to sub snack y’all.

It’s been a chaotic but great week. Great mainly because I ate so much of this cake - but also because my snack plate made its second appearance in The New York Times!! Really putting my journalism degree to use (not). Work has been crazy but the end is near and I’m heading to the big ‘ol USA tomorrow for Christmas. Can’t wait to sleep and rot on the couch for a week straight.

Snack of the week: Cookies from my cookbook club’s Christmas cookie swap. I used Sohla El-Waylly’s “Add Anything” cookie recipe from her book Start Here and added choc chips, salted crinkle crisps, pistachios, and fleur de sel caramels - phenom.

Cookbook of the week: Cult Sando by Jimmy Callaway. The best egg sando recipe and technique ever. Just bought a few copies as gifts.

Kitchen piece of the week: My new (dishwasher safe!!) resin matcha whisk. I recently tossed my bamboo whisk after noticing chunks of it in the bottom of my glass after chugging a matcha latte - yikes.

This resin matcha whisk has changed my LIFE. No exaggeration. It whisks the shite out of every tiny matcha particle resulting in the frothiest, smoothest matcha I’ve ever experienced. Really wish I’d bought this years ago. I got mine from Matchado but it looks like Amazon also have them.

Enough chitchat - here’s the cake recipe:

Chocolate Guinness Loaf Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting 🌟

I don’t even like cake - but I LOVE this cake.

As an Irish gal, I thought it was time to start sharing some more patriotic recipes - and chocolate Guinness cake is hands down the best cake ever. Inspired by my local cafe, Burnt in West London, I like to make it loaf-shaped for easing slicing, storing and sharing. It’s great with a hot cup of tea. It’s very *moist*, rich but not heavy, and has this great depth of flavour from the Guinness. Make sure to give it a go this Christmas!

Serves 8-10 slices.

Ingredients:

For the cake -

100ml Guinness
125g salted butter (most other recipes call for unsalted but I’m not like other recipes)
200g caster sugar
40g cocoa powder
100ml sour cream
2x eggs
1/2 tbsp vanilla
175g flour
3/4tsp bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt

For the frosting -

200g cream cheese - ensure it’s at room temp - not cold
120g icing sugar
75g butter - very, very softened (if your kitchen is cold, like mine, give it a zap in the microwave to soften)
1tsp vanilla or more to taste

Tools -

Loaf tin (900g / 2lb / 21cm x 11xm x 7cm) - I use this one
Wire cooling rack
Stand or hand mixer

How to:

Preheat your oven to 170°C / 340°F and get your ingredients measured out and ready to go.
Butter your loaf tin and line it with baking paper for easy removal. I use this method.
To begin making your cake batter, melt your butter in a pan over medium. Once fully melted, remove from the heat and whisk in your Guinness and cocoa powder.
Then add in your eggs, sour cream, vanilla, and sugar. Whisk until nice and smooth.
In a large bowl, mix your dry ingredients together: the flour, bicarb of soda and salt. Slowly add your chocolate-y Guinness mixture to the dry ingredients, whisking until just combined.
Pour your cake batter into the greased and lined loaf tin.
Pop in the overn for 35-45 minutes. I normally check at the 30 minute mark, do the skewer test and if it doesn’t come out clean, leave it in for another 10, and check again.
Remove your cake from the oven once ready. Leave it to sit in the loaf tin for about 10-20 minutes and then use your parchment paper to lift it onto a cooling rack. Once cool enough, you can ditch the paper.
Meanwhile, make your vanilla cream cheese frosting. Ensuring that your butter is very softened and at room temp, add it to your stand mixer or a bowl with a hand mixer. Beat for 5 minutes, until smooth and creamy, then slowy add your icing sugar in parts.
Once your icing sugar is fully mixed in and your mixture is looking fluffy, add your room temp cream cheese (I learnt the hard way that adding cold cream cheese to softened butter will ruin your consistency - and life!) and your vanilla. Continue mixing just until combined. You don’t want to mix for too long or it gets runny and gross.
When your loaf cake is fully cooled, spread your icing on top. If you fancy, some chocolate gratings or shavings go great on top top.
Serve with cups of tea or pints of Guinness!