Chocolate Guinness Cake

Valentine day eve and I am finally sitting down with a cup of peppermint tea. What a busy week we have had! My daughter caught the chickenpox last Thursday so we have spent the week tied up at home nursing her back to health.

I love valentines day, actually I don’t think there is a holiday I don’t like 🙂 one day of the year we take out of our busy lives to show that loved one how much we love them. And there is always is a delicious meal involved!

My valentines baking this year is a Chocolate Guinness Cake. A friend gave me this recipe after baking it for me when I came home from hospital with my new born daughter. I fell in love with its dense chocolatey flavour and light cream cheese frosting. The Guinness enriches the chocolate flavour without giving a stout taste. The recipe calls for baking just one layer of cake but I prefer dividing the mixture between two 9″ baking tins an sandwiching the layers with the frosting, that way you get a more even ratio of cake to frosting!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

For the Cake

• 250ml Guinness
• 250g unsalted butter
• 80g Cocoa powder
• 400g Caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• 140ml Buttermilk
• 280g Plain Flour
• 2tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• ½ tsp Baking Powder

For the Frosting

• 50g Softened unsalted butter
• 125g full fat cream cheese
• 300g Icing Sugar
• Cocoa Powder for dusting.

Method

1. Grease and line the base of two 9 inch cake tins.
2. Preheat the oven to 170C .
3. Pour the Guinness into a saucepan and then add the butter and heat gently until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder and sugar into the warm mixture.
4. In a bowl, mix the buttermilk, vanilla essence, and eggs together. Add this to the mixture in the saucepan.
5. Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a mixer or hand held whisk. Mix on a low speed and add the mixture from the pan. Mix thoroughly until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for approx 30 minutes.
7. The cake will be baked when the sponge bounces back when pressed lightly and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let the cake cool down, remove from the tin onto a wire rack and set aside until it has completely cooled down before adding any frosting.
9. To make the frosting, using a mixer or hand held whisk, mix the butter and icing sugar together until it is fully combined and smooth. Add the cream cheese and mix on a medium speed until light and fluffy.
10. Once cooled place one of the cake layers on a serving plate and cover with half the frosting, place the second layer on top and spread the remaining frosting on top.

Happy baking,

Bácáil with Love (Bake with Love)

Skeleton Halloween Brownies

Love Halloween, its my favourite time of year. With the colour of the trees changing to a sea of warm autumnal colours  its so picturesque, and even though the weather is far from warm, it sure looks it.

We were invited to a Halloween party and decided to bake some festive spooky treats to bring with us. While on holiday this year we stocked up on a few baking supplies and came home with a skeleton candy mould. It was so easy to use and they turned out so cool!

The brownie is rich and dense, and very chocolaty! And it produces the perfect crumb that looks like soil. Frosted in a chocolate buttercream icing which lightens each bite. They turned out fantastic and they were a huge hit! Gobbled up by the kids and adults!

For the brownies  

• 5 eggs
• 500g caster sugar
• 120g plain flour
• 100g cocoa powder
• 250g unsalted butter, melted
• 30g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Put the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with a handheld electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the flour and cocoa powder and beat until all the ingredients are well mixed. Pour in the melted butter and mix through. Stir the walnuts and chocolate in by hand until evenly dispersed.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 30–35 minutes, or until the top is firm but the centre is still soft. Leave to cool completely.
4. Once cool, trim off all the edges to even up the brownie. Place all the edges in a food processor ans blitz until you have a fine crumb to use as the soil.

For the frosting

• 1 cup semisweet chocolate
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons milk

1. Wait to make the frosting until the brownies are cooled and ready to be frosted, because this frosting should be spread on immediately. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler or microwave. Whisk in the vanilla, coffee powder, and salt, then stir in the powdered sugar and enough milk to reach your desired consistency. If the frosting isn’t smooth, re-heat it briefly in a double boiler or microwave until smooth and lump-free, then immediately spread it on the cooled brownies.

Candy Skeletons

You’ll need the mould and a bag of green candy melts. Follow directions for melting the candy and moulds that are on the packages. Make 4 sets of skeletons (i.e. 8 skeletons)

The only special equipment you’ll need is the skeleton candy mould. The one I used is made by Wilton and I bought it at Michael’s craft store. The skeletons are easy to make – you just melt the candy, pour it in the mould and let set.

Putting the brownies together
Cut the cooled brownies into the desired amount of graves, we cut 10. Place them on your serving platter or tray. Frost the brownies with your chocolate icing – this doesn’t have to look perfect because you are going to cover it up!

Gently press the skeleton pieces into the chocolate icing to secure. Sprinkle the brownie crumbs on top to make it look like they are coming out of the earth.

Repeat with skeleton pieces.

Boo-tiful 🙂

Happy Halloween!

Bácáil with Love (Bake with Love)

Chocolate cola cake

Christmas came very early for me as I received my dream present when I arrived home yesterday. My husband presented me with a KitchenAid Artisan Mixer, and in my favourite colour purple! Feel so excited and lucky to finally own one, I have the best husband!

He knows the baking rewards for my gift will be worth it, and I decided to bake his favourite chocolate cake as my first bake with my new mixer. He isn’t a fan of chocolate cake or in fact any chocolate dessert except for this Chocolate Cola Cake! It is simple delicious, a chocolate lovers dream! By adding cola to the chocolate cake it give it incredibly moist and the chocolate fudgy topping is amazing! We think its best to serve this cake warmed as the topping turns into a lovely fudgy sauce that soaks into the sponge, one slice is never enough!

Ingredients

• 250g self-raising flour
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150g soft brown sugar
• 150g butter
• 200ml Cola
• 150ml milk
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the topping

• 100g butter
• 2 tbsp Cola
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 200g icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 180C.
2. Prepare a two 9inch cake tins by buttering and lining with parchment paper.
3. Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Melt the butter and cola drink gently in a pan then add to the dry ingredients, together with the milk, eggs and vanilla.
4. Mix gently but thoroughly and tip into the prepared tins. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
5. For the topping. Put the butter, cola drink and cocoa into a pan and melt slowly. Bring the mixture to the boil and then pour onto the icing sugar. Beat until smooth. Place one cake sponge on a serving plate and pour half the warm topping over the first cake sponge, place the second sponge on top  and pour the remaining topping over allowing to run over the sides of the cake.

Happy baking,

Bácáil with Love (Bake with Love)