the recipe everyone wants

Chocolate Guinness Cake
Prompted by Niki's excellent stout cake, I thought I'd post my recipe for a guinness cake. This came to me from my sister, who got it off her friend Maria, who got it off a woman named Karen. Which just goes to show how good a cake it is - the kind where everyone wants the recipe. Like Niki's cake it's a piece of piss to make and very very moist. Excellent for chocolate cravings and also a good cake to take to dinners or whatever - people always seem quite impressed by it.

My chocolate cake rule is it ain’t a chocolate cake if it doesn’t have chocolate in it. I won’t stand for none of those brown cakes that just have a few tablespoons of cocoa in them. This is the cake exception that proves the rule. I think it's because the guinness makes it so moist, and then you pour heaps of chocolate over the top!

You be needing:

• 175g plain flour

• a pinch of baking powder

• 1 tsp bicarb (baking soda)

• 110g butter

• 250g dark brown sugar

• 2 eggs, beaten up

• 200ml Guinness (or another stout)
  

• 55g cocoa

• 200gm dark chocolate

• 1/2 cup cream

• 1 extra tbsp butter

Now, line your cake tin well with some spare paper and preheat your oven to 180C. You need three bowls. In the first one sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarb. In a biggish one cream the butter, sugar and eggs. In the third bowl mix together the Guinness and cocoa – don’t beat it too much as you want the Guinness to stay bubbly. Now mix all three bowls together, adding them alternately to the biggest bowl. Stir it as little as possible. Pour it into your tin and wack it in the oven. It should take 45min until it’s not gooey in the middle. Leave it to cool for a bit and prepare the icing: in a double boiler melt the chocolate, add the cream and extra butter. Pour this chocolatey goodness all over the cake. It will set a bit as it cools but it’s good wet too. Top with strawberries or kiwi slices or something for true fanciness.