Chocolate and Guinness® cake

Method
Prep:20min  ›  Cook:40min  ›  Ready in:1hr 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Line and grease a 23cm cake tin, and pre weigh all the dry ingredients to speed up the batter creation.
2. Heat up the Guinness® with the butter in a large pan on the hob. Don't let it boil, but let the butter melt through and give the booze a lovely shine.
3. Add the sugar and cocoa into the warm liquid and whisk gently in the pan to get rid of any lumps of cocoa.
4. Add the cream and again whisk. The cream will cool down the mixture so you can add the eggs and then the vanilla. Continue to mix until completely incorporated.
5. Add the bicarb and start adding the flour a small amount at a time which will start to thicken the cake mixture. It will become hard to keep mixing but this has to be done for 5 minutes to get rid of any lumps.
6. Pour the mix into the tin and bake for about 40 minutes. A knife will come out clean when poked in the centre.
7. Let it cool for at least 4 hours, and ice it if you choose.

Cook's note

This proves that a bakery quality cake can be made so easily at home! You can make a simple icing by blending 100g of icing sugar with 150ml of double cream and 150g of cream cheese. This sweet but tangy frosting is the perfect topping for the rich and dark cake.