Clandestine Cake Club - Guinness choc cake

For the July meeting of Market Deeping's Clandestine Cake Club, I made a Guinness chocolate cake. The theme this month was 'Alcoholics Anonymous'. I also think this makes a cheeky entry into July's Tea Time Treats from Karen at Lavendar & Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked - this month's theme is summer fairs and cake stalls. A boozey cake would be my choice at a cake stand any day!

Welcome to July's Market Deeping CCC

I've never baked a boozy cake before so I was a bit wary of this theme, and I wasn't at all sure how this recipe would turn out. It was certainly a different method, and the mixture looked very suspect - dark like the night, lumpy, and bubbling up like a witches' cauldron!

Witches' caudron cake mix

This is probably the richest cake I've ever baked. It had a stout taste to it that wasn't overpowering and nicely cut through the sweetness of the chocolate - this was VERY chocolatey! The cream cheese frosting had a good tang to it that was just enough smoothness.

chocolate Guinness cake

The cake club was quiet this month, just four cakes again. We had a carrot and Cointreau cake, chocolate and whiskey sponge, and an Amaretto cream sponge. I felt totally caked out afterwards - each was very very rich and heavy, and in hindsight I'd rather have just eaten half a slice of each... I think I had a cake hangover for a good two days.

Amaretto cake

The chocolate Guinness cake recipe was from The Hummingbird Bakery 'Cake Days' book, although I've heard that Nigella does a good version of this too.

250ml Guinness
250g marg
80g cocoa
400g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
140ml buttermilk
280g plain flour
2 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp baking powder

Pour the Guinness into a saucepan, add the butter, and heat gently until melted.
Remove pan from heat and add cocoa and sugar. Stir.
Mix the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla together, then add to the mixture.
Sift flour and other ingredients into a bowl, then pour in the dark mixture. Whisk together.
Pour into a 23cm (9in) tin prepared with baking paper.
Bake in the oven at 170 degrees (150 ish fan) for about 45 minutes.

I didn't have a tin this size - mine is only 20cm - and instead of leaving some mixture out I thought I'd just pour it all in and hope for the best. It turned out very tall, and the top was very bumpy. It also took about 1 hour 5 minutes to cook.

To frost, I sliced the top of the cake off to make it smooth and flat. To make the frosting, mix together 50g butter and 300g icing sugar until it resembles powdery snow. Then add 125g cream cheese and mix until smooth and fluffy. I would recommend a layer of melted apricot jam on to the cake at this point - I forgot to do this, and so the frosting ended up with a mottled cake-crumb pattern! To combat this, I just added more frosting. Finish with a light dusting of cocoa powder.

Choc Guinnes cake topless

This didn't look too special in the end, but my, it tasted special.

To find out more about the fabulous Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.