Chocolate Guinness Cake

Happy (belated) St.Patrick's Day! I hope you had a fun day and the hangover's not too bad :)

I've been baking... Today is Red Nose Day here in the UK and this year we are doing few fun things to raise money for charity at work, like sponsored silence, wii games, giant jenga and a bake sale.

This Chocolate Guinness Cake will be on offer today, only if I can stop myself from having another piece, it's so treacly dark and absolutely delicious; along with a couple other favourites like Clementine Cakes and also Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

Anyway, I really gotta go now and sell some cakes. I'm gonna let Nigella tell you more about the cake. You can trust her, she's wonderful:

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's perfectly acceptable to leave the cake un-iced: in fact, it tastes gorgeous plain.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
For list of ingredients and instructions, click here.

Update: The fund raising event went really well. The chocolate Guinness cake was gone in seconds, followed by the chocolate peanut butter cheesecake. Overall, we raised over £300.00, so well done team!