HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all from the Emerald Isle!!! 

This is my very favourite cake in the whole world (bold words I know!!).  I am normally totally fickle with my food loves, but this cake has been my constant since I discovered it (much like my husband!!!).

It is Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake (with a very minor tweak),  there are many reasons why this cake ticks so many boxed, it has a dense, rich texture (bordering on brownie), and a complex range of flavours, thanks to the hoppiness of the Guinness, and the richness of the organic cocoa.  It is incredibly easy to make, only dirties one large saucepan - whats not to like!!

I have reduced the amount of bicarbonate of soda from the original version, I sometimes use just 1 teaspoon, and it still rises beautifully.  I also leave out the icing when I make it just for the family - the icing looks fantastic, and its similarity to a pint of Guinness is really cute- but I like the full on flavour of the cake without the sweetness of the icing.  I tried to make up for the lack of icing in the photo with some shamrock sweets, pitiful!!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Prepare a 23cm springform tin with parchment paper and butter.

250ml     Guinness

250g       Butter

75g         Cocoa

400g       Caster Sugar

142ml     Sour Cream (I sometimes use creme fraiche)

2             Large Eggs

1 tbsp     vanilla extract

275g       plain flour - sifted

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (bread soda) - sifted

Measure the Guinness into a large saucepan and add the butter (cubed will speed up the melting process) - heat gently until melted.

Whisk in the sugar and cocoa.

Beat in the sour cream, the eggs and the vanilla extract.

Whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin, and bake in the middle of the oven for 45 - 60 minutes.

When a cake tester (or piece of spaghetti) comes out clean it is ready.

When you remove the cake from the oven leave it in the tin (on a wire rack) to cool completely.

Hope you enjoy it, I'm looking forward to a slice with an Irish Coffee!

FOR EACH PETAL ON THE SHAMROCK THIS BRINGS A WISH YOUR WAY

GOOD HEALTH, GOOD LUCK AND HAPPINESS FOR YOU TODAY AND EVERY DAY.

SLAINTE

BROWNIE ONE

At last, my first brownie blog! I am really disappointed with the photo, it was much more moist than it looks, I promise!! I do confess that it had gone past the squidgy stage, but only just.

I always buy Food & Wine Magazine (Ireland) and try one of the recipes immediately, this month the one to try just jumped out at me, it was a brownie (yeah) contained Guinness (yeah) and would be perfect for my pre St. Patrick's day blog (yeah).

I normally bake Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake for St. Paddy's Day (actually I use any excuse!), but hoped that these brownies would be a nice way to ring the changes. While they are lovely, they don't reach the dizzy heights of Ms Lawson's confection.

I would recommend these brownies though, the Guinness provides a subtle spiciness, and the white chocolate pieces become lovely and fudgy.

This recipe was contributed by Stephen Jeffers, who only converted some of the ingredients to metric, I have finished the job for him.

Chocolate Guinness Brownies

85g Sugar

250g Dark Chocolate (I used 75%)

85g Butter (softened)

125g Flour

125g Cocoa powder (I use Green and Black)

125g White Chocolate Chips (I used Green and Black and chopped it up)

285ml Guinness

4 Eggs

Preheat oven to 190 C. Line a 20cm square brownie dish.

Beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a medium saucepan, at a low to moderate heat. Stir until smooth and then pour into the egg mixture.

Sift the flour and cocoa together, beat into the chocolate mixture then add the white chocolate pieces, next stir in the Guinness.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 - 25 mins (this actually took alot longer in my oven, it was still raw after 20 mins!!)

Test with a skewer (or piece of raw spaghetti) it should come out semi clean.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 20 mins and then remove to a wire rack.

Enjoy.