Never show up to visit new parents empty handed. A postnatal bake is the perfect gift, cake is always very well received and this recipe has become one of my all time favourites, I love cake, the looks, the smell, the textures. Its a comforting and happy food! Chocolate and Guinness are a winning combination. The Guinness brings out the chocolate so well and the Cream cheese frosting just perfects everything, chocolate and Guinness also seem to now belong to pregnancy and motherhood!
Now I must clear up a myth about Guinness, it's NOT high in iron. I know pregnant women used to be advised to drink it for that reason and nurses would even give it to patients after having blood tests but I'm sorry to say that 1 pint contains just 0.3%
The good news is that Guinness contains many other benefits including:
Folates (B vitamins), antioxidant compounds, soluble fibre and prebiotics.
Dark chocolate also has many proven nutritional benefits including:
Fibre, magnesium, potassium, iron and antioxidants. Making both ingredients super nutritious.
Like anyone needs an excuse to enjoy a slice of delicious cake but knowing that you will be gifting new parents all this nourishment definitely makes it all the thought all the more enjoyable. I have been known to make and deliver 4 of these beauties in various nourishment parcels in one day!
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter
75g dark chocolate
200ml Guinness
200g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
200g caster sugar
Cream cheese frosting
200g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
To make this beat together with an electric whisk or by hand and put it in the fridge.
Method
Line a cake tin or two loaf tins and preheat oven to 180
- Cube the butter and break up the chocolate. Melt in a bowl over a simmering an of water, the base of the bowl should not touch the water. Let it cool.
- Sieve the flour, cocoa and baking powder together
- Beat the egg and sugar together until smooth and fluffy
- Stir the guinness into the melted chocolate mixture, dont worry if it looks split it will sort itself out.
- Alternate beating the sugar mixture and flour mixture into the melted chocolate until it's all well combined.
- Transfer to a lined cake tin or two lined loaf tins and bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer JUST comes out clean.
Wait until your cake is fully cooled before icing or the icing will simply melt off. Dust with cocoa or grate some dark chocolate on top if desired, it's not essential but I think it looks pretty.
A couple of things I've learned during my long love affair baking cakes. Do not be over cautious and over bake your cake. Many people complain that their cakes always come out dry, this usually isn't down to a bad recipe, it's usually the baker and can be due to over whisking or over beating your mixture but also over baking. A cake doesn't necessarily have to be burned to be over baked.
Sometimes cakes catch or brown too quickly in the oven, if this happens to you cover the cake lightly in tin foil and uncover close to the finish time.
If you don't have time or simply can't wait for your cake to cool before icing put it in the freezer for a short time!
I hope you enjoy this wonderful cake, do let me know how you get on in the comments!
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