Make a Cake!

True, cake is usually the answer to many-a-problem, the least of which is your current “How to celebrate the Irish drinking holiday (practically invented for college) WHILST writing that 8-10 page philosophy paper on Sartre’s view of animal rights” conundrum. And believe me, I know exactly where you’re at with this difficulty. Literally, you are right next to me, at 11:00 pm, with a few papers spread out, a Starbucks double-shot at your side, getting a nonsensical text from your friend who went to Kells Pub and who can’t write a proper contraction to save his own sobriety. Yeah, this sucks.

So make a cake! British food writer Nigella Lawson has gifted us with the Chocolate Guinness Cake 2010, which comes loaded with sugar, chocolate, and an optional “cream cheese frosting to echo the pale head that sits on top of a glass of stout.”

So get started now. Keep working on that paper. Have the cake for breakfast. Feel awesome.

Good luck.

Ingredients for the cake:

1 cup Guinness

1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 cups superfine sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Ingredients for the topping:

8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese

1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the over to 350 F, and butter and line a 9 inch springform pan.

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 baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake’s cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the frosting. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift over the confectioner’s sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted confectioners’ sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.

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.

Makes about 12 slices