Chocolate Guinness Cake

It's Saint Patrick's Day and although the meal is pretty standard -- corned beef and cabbage, dessert is different from year to year.

This year, it will be this sinful chocolate cake:
Chocolate Guinness Cake. With beer and chocolate, it has to be good. (They are two of the food groups, aren't they?)

We first tasted this cake on a long ago vacation in Seattle. At an Irish Pub called Kell's. (We enjoy Irish Pubs and usually stop at one whenever we find one). I ate the cake at the pub, but found the recipe on the internet. (For I couldn't get them to share at the pub!)

It's chocolate with a chocolate glaze and then gilded with chocolate ganache. Alas, pansies decorate the cake -- seems like I was all out of shamrocks!

KELL'S CHOCOLATE GUINNESS CAKE

1/4 c. cocoa

1/3 c. Guinness draught stout

1 cup flour

3/4 t. baking soda

1/4 t. baking powder

1/8 t. salt

1/4 c. butter, softened

1 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 t. vanilla

1/3 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 and place rack in middle of oven. Grease and lightly flour 9 inch cake pan.

In a small saucepan, combine cocoa and stout and heat over low-moderate heat until smooth. Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on low-medium speed, beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until pale yellow in color. Beat in eggs one at a time and add vanilla

Stir buttermilk into cooled cocoa and stout mixture.

With mixer on low, slowly add one-third of buttermilk mixture into creamed butter until incorporated. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the remaining two parts of the buttermilk and ending with the flour. Batter will look grainy or appear to be breaking up.

Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack with parchment or waxed paper beneath it. Allow cake to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then slide knife around the edge of pan and invert to release cake, bottom side up, onto wire rack. When cool, use a fork to poke holes generously into bottom side of cake.

Chocolate Guinness Sauce

1/4 c. Guinness draught stout

4 T. light or dark brown sugar

2 T. cocoa

1/2 t. vanilla

Mix ingredients in small saucepan and heat over low heat until smooth. Allow to cool. Spoon 3/5 of the sauce over bottom of the cake, allowing sauce to seep into cake. Invert cake right side up onto serving platter. Poke hole sin top of cake and spoon remainder of sauce on top of cake.

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

10 ounces (1 1/4 c.) heavy whipping cream

10 ounces semisweet chocolate chips


Bring cream to a simmer in a small saucepot. Turn off heat and stir in chocolate pieces until sauce is smooth and creamy. Pour onto finished cake, smoothing ganache atop and along sides of cake. Ganache will pool at bottom of cake and can be removed with a knife.

It's Saint Patrick's Day and I'm joining Kathleen at Cuisine Kathleen for her Second Annual St. Pat's Party.