Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

A birthday cake for Marty, who loves dark chocolate and Guinness!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe

Guinness Chocolate Cake
(adapted from the Rich Stout Cake recipe in the Green & Black’s cookbook)

• 250g unsalted butter
• 1¾ cups (375g) soft dark brown sugar
• 4 large (59g) eggs
• 1²/₃ (250g) cups plain flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), sifted
• 440ml can of Guinness, at room temperature
• 1 cup (110g) cocoa powder, sifted
• 150g dark chocolate, finely ground or grated (I used Callebaut 54% callets)

1.  Preheat oven to 160C (325F) with fan.

2. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with canola oil spray (or other vegetable oil, just not olive or rice bran oil).  Also spray a couple of extra small tins – muffin or mini-loaf tins, as there will be excess batter after the bundt pan is filled.

Alternatively, you could grease and line a 23cm/9″ springform cake tin with parchment paper.

3. Grind the chocolate up – either using a grater or a mini food processor (which is what I did). If you’re using the latter, pulse the chocolate until finely crumbled, but be careful not to heat it up too much, or it will melt.

4. In medium sized bowl, stir together the  flour, baking powder, sifted bicarb soda and sifted cocoa. Note that you really do need to sift the bicarb and cocoa, or you’ll end up with bitter lumps in your finished cake. Stir in grated chocolate.

5. In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

6. Add some of the flour mixture to the batter and mix well.  Then add in some Guinness and mix again to combine.  Continue in this fashion, alternating flour and stout, making sure you finish with a reasonable amount of flour at the end.  The mix may appear to curdle, but the final addition of flour will smooth it out again.  Beat until the batter is thoroughly mixed – it will be quite soft.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, filling the bundt pan to about two-thirds full.  Pour the remaining batter into the smaller tins.

8. Bake the larger cake for about one hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out cleanly.  The smaller cakes will cook much faster – start checking muffin sized cakes after about 20 minutes.  If you bake the cake in a 9″ springform, you might need a longer cooking time – if it begins to brown too much, cover the top with foil after the first hour.

9. Remove from oven and let the cake rest for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Topping
(from Jamie Oliver’s Return of the Naked Chef)

• 100g/3 ¾ oz butter
• 100g/3 ¾ oz best cooking chocolate
• 100g /3 ¾ oz icing sugar (sifted)
• 3 tablespoons (60ml) milk

Melt the chocolate topping ingredients in a bowl over some lightly simmering water. Stir until blended well and allow to cool slightly. Pour over cake and allow to set.

We gave the large cake to Marty for his birthday, and kept our two mini cakes as tasting samples. This moreish, moist recipe is very dark and grown up – perfect for those who don’t like their chocolate cake overly sweet.

Gillian at Some Say Cocoa made this cake recently as well – check our her version here.