Thursday 12 March 2015

Irish Stout Mocha Loaf Cake


I don’t know why but I’ve always liked baking/making something for St. Patrick’s Day for my blog. I’m not Irish, have never been there, but I just like the fact that it is seen as a ‘holiday’ in Ireland and the States.

The colour green is usually a predominant factor in a lot of blogger recipes around this time. Or the use of Guinness. And I have gone for the latter, sort of, this year.

My drink of choice for this bake was a porter stout, made by Guinness. It had very chocolaty and coffeeish overtones when I drank it.  I immediately wanted to bake it into a cake and add even more of those flavours. The stout adds a rich depth of flavour to the finished cake. I know that Guinness and chocolate cake is nothing new, but the addition of coffee just gave another element to the bake.


 The cake batter for this was so light and fluffy I could have just eaten that on its own. I used both melted chocolate and cocoa powder plus a sachet of strong instant coffee.  I did restrain myself from eating the batter and baked it in a loaf tin. To decorate I made a simple cream cheese frosting and a slice of the cake looked almost like a pint of the dark stuff with the darkness of the sponge and the white of the frosting.



The taste of the cake itself? So much more than a chocolate cake, with the extra stout and coffee flavours in there. Give it a try for St. Patrick’s Day!


NB: You could use any dark stout in this recipe.


Irish Stout Mocha Loaf Cake


A deep, rich chocolaty cake with irish stout and coffee added
Adapted from Delicious Magazine
Cuisine: dessert Category: cake Yields: 1 large loaf 
Prep Time: Cook Time: Total Time:
 
Ingredients
  • 250 grams unsalted butter, softened
  • 200 grams dark brown sugar
  • 100 grams plain chocolate, at least 60% cocoa solids
  • 2 medium free-range eggs
  • 200 ml of stout
  • 275 grams self-raising flour
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 sachet (7 grams) strong instant coffee powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 30 grams full fat cream cheese
  • 150 ml double cream
  • 2 tablespoons of icing sugar
 
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a large loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
  2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering, or in the microwave. Allow it too cool slightly.
  3. In a mixer beat together the brown sugar and butter until fluffy, this will take a good few minutes.
  4. Add the melted chocolate and beat this in followed by the eggs, one at a time.
  5. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb. Add the instant coffee and stir this through.
  6. Add the flour mix to the wet mix and beat until combined. Add the stout and mix until the batter is smooth.
  7. Transfer the cake batter to the loaf tin. Fill it about three quarters full, don’t over fill.
  8. Bake in the oven 35 to 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake.
  9. Allow it to cool fully in the tin before removing it.
  10. Make the frosting by whipping the cream cheese with the double cream and icing sugar until it becomes a spreadable consistency.
  11. Spread on top of the cooled cake and keep chilled in the fridge until ready to serve.



I am entering this cake into this month’s Alphabakes hosted by Caroline at Caroline Makes and this month Ros at the More Than Occasional Baker. The letter this month is ‘S’ and stout fits in there well!


 I am also entering this cake into Dom at Belleau Kitchen’s new challenge ‘Simply Eggcellent’ which challenges us to use free-range eggs. I have used two in here, so I think the cake qualifies!

16 comments:

  1. You'd love Dublin, and the Guinness Brewery tour is fun, it ends with a lovely pint at the top of the building in a panoramic bar! While you are away I might sneak in and steal your plate, it's lovely, and any cake that might be left...

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    1. Sounds great - I've been on the Heineken tour in Amsterdam and that was great. These breweries can certainly organise a piss-up!

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  2. I had not baked a cake in my life yet, but with the recipes are quite intriguing, don't know if "stout" is available in groceries, I definitely want to try, coz, I love choco cakes, if ever, I crave for it, Cheese Cake Factory,makes the best choice for me,thanks!

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    1. I'm guessing you are not in the UK. I hope you find Guinness somewhere!

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  3. Looks so rich and delicious. We had a saying in the States, 'Everyone is Irish on St Patrick's Day'.

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  4. What a gorgeously dark cake. I love the way you describe it as so dark and better than chocolate cake. I've yet to make a stout or Guinness cake but I'm sorely tempted. Thanks so much for the delicious entry into Simply Eggcellent x

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  5. It does look just like a pint of Guinness! I love cakes with Guinness or stout in, it creates such a deep rich flavour, yummy!

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    1. It does, quite tricky to describe I find Kat.

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  6. Great colour and I'm sure a depth of flavour to match.

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  7. I need a slice of this! I know what I'll be making this weekend :)

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  8. I'm not a coffee fan but I think that I could cope with this! A lot of my friends and family enjoy Mocha so maybe this recipe is a good one for me to try! xx

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  9. Love the addition of coffee - great idea! I've not baked a chocolate and guinness cake for a while now, I think it's time to change that but using your idea of adding coffee! Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.

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