It can only mean one thing..... CAKE

How lovely to reach 100 followers!

I have no idea who the 100th was (obviously shy).

Never mind...... a celebration can only mean one thing.........

CAKE!!!

There may just be enough for a morsel each - it's certainly rich enough.  This is my favourite cake to bake at the moment.  Chocolate Guiness Cake.  Super quick and simple to make, and wonderfully dense, moist and indulgent.  It is my favouritest (I know that isn't a proper word) chocolate cake of all time.  Even the children, who think Guiness is revolting, love this.  Fancy making one yourself?  It's dead easy - I'll share the recipe with you:-

Recipe sourced at Nigella.com

FOR THE CAKE

• 250ml Guinness
• 250g unsalted butter
• 75g cocoa
• 400g caster sugar
• 1 x 142ml pot sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
• 275g plain flour
• 2 1/2teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

FOR THE TOPPING

• 300g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar
• 125ml double or whipping cream

 

Method

Serves: Makes about 12 slices

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line a 23cm spring form tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the 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 the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the 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 the famous pint.

Notes  

Mine is a fan oven, and after 45 minutes, the cake looked cooked on top, but was still gooey inside after testing with a skewer.  I turned the oven down to 160C and left it in for a further 15 minutes.  Looks pretty darn good to me.  Rather than a spring form cake tin, I've baked it in a large silicone "tin".  Here's hoping it turns out OK once cool.

It looks well risen, which I was a bit worried about, as I only used a hand balloon whisk to whizz everything together.  It was only after I'd started, that I wondered if I should have used my electric hand whisk.  It certainly doesn't look as though it needed it.

Oh hurry up and cool - I can hardly wait to cut into you - you gorgeous thing

For the topping, I didn't add any cream to the mixture.  I was going to add a spoonful of creme-fraiche, but it was already so rich and creamy it simply didn't need it.

Verdict

 This has turned out quite beautifully.  Tops marks to Nigella for a deliciously simple recipe.  I couldn't resist scraping a little shamrock into the top of the icing.  This is a superb chocolate cake, and so quick and easy to do it will be frequently repeated.

Straight after baking, I wasn't sure if this was exactly what I was hoping to achieve.  I thought the texture was a bit too spongy.  However, after storing in an airtight container overnight, the resulting cake is perfect.  Dense, moist and divine.  My idea of chocolate heaven.

This cake keeps remarkably well.  After returning home after nearly a fortnight away, the cake was still moist in it's airtight container.  Had to chuck it though, as the cheesy topping had gone a bit furry.  Would be perfect to keep with a simple chocolate topping instead.

Enjoy!

And once again - a big thank you to all my followers.

Mwah x