Chocolate Guinness Cake...thinking about St. Patrick's Day

This recipe for a moist chocolate cake containing that most famous of Irish stouts (Guinness) comes from Nigella Lawson, Britain's domestic goddess. I love her description of the cake. Some might call the writing florid; I call it an example of an advantageous use of adjectives.

Nigella writes..."This cake is magnificent in its damp blackness. I can’t say that you can absolutely taste the stout in it, but there is certainly a resonant, ferrous tang which I happen to love. The best way of describing it is to say that it’s like gingerbread without the spices. There is enough sugar – a certain understatement here – to counter any potential bitterness of the Guinness, and although I’ve eaten versions of this made up like a chocolate sandwich cake, stuffed and slathered in a rich chocolate icing, I think that can take away from its dark majesty. Besides, I wanted to make a cream cheese frosting to echo the pale head that sits on top of a glass of stout. It’s unconventional to add cream but it makes it frothier and lighter which I regard as aesthetically and gastronomically desirable. But it is perfectly acceptable to leave the cake un-iced: in fact, it tastes gorgeous plain."

Editorial note: In the photo, you'll see that I have not removed the cake from the bundt pan in which I baked it; that would be the bundt pan with the defective non-stick surface. The cake looks like baked asphalt and smells a bit medicinal at this point. However, I know that this is an edible cake because my friend Jennifer made it for our bookclub meeting and it looked and tasted great. And of course, Nigella endorses it.

Ingredients Cake:
- 1 cup Guinness
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of butter
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 2 cups of sugar
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda

Frosting Ingredients:
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 and 1/4 cups of powdered (icing) sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream


Preheat your oven to 350° F. and grease and line with parchment paper a 9-inch springform pan, ( a smarter choice than a bundt tin). Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan and add the sliced butter. Heat until the butter is melted and remove from the heat. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla. Add the sour cream mixture to the Guinness mixture in the saucepan. Finally, beat in the flour and baking soda. Pour the batter into the greased and lined springform pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

For the frosting, beat the powdered sugar and cream cheese together until well combined and creamy. Add the cream and beat again until it's a spreadable consistency. This may seem like a lot of frosting but don't skimp! Remember, Nigella's somewhat over-the-top vision is that the cake should resemble the frothy head of a pint of Guinness.