Expensive Sunday Chocolate Guinness Cake

The reason this one turned out to be an expensive round was because on a sunday the bottle store is closed here in Gaborone.  So of course the only alternative is to send my husband to the local Keg to buy one Guinness Beer for 35 Pula.  I think he stopped trying to explain that he needed it for a chocolate cake recipe when the waiter just continued to have this blank look on his face, took the money, handed him the beer, turned around and walked away.

The recipe asks for 400 ml Guinness Beer, a can of Guinness measures 440 ml.  At this point you can masterfully crack the can open, slurp the 40 ml that bubbles up and keep the rest for the cake.

Ingredients:

225 g butter, softened
350 g brown sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
225 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
400 ml Guinness beer
100 g Cocoa Powder

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C

Butter and line a 20-25cm cake tin with greaseproof paper

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.  Slowly add the beaten eggs, mixing well to incorporate.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarb.

Stir the cocoa powder into the Guinness.

Bit by bit, alternating between the two, add the flour and the Guinness mixture to the egg mixture, mixing well until completely combined.

Spoon into the tin and bake for 1 - 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out fairly clean.  The top will begin to crack but the cake should still be moist inside.

Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool.

Once completely cooled, drizzle the top with ganache.

Ganache ingredients:

200 g dark or white chocolate

200 ml fresh cream

15 g butter chilled

Place cream in glass jug and microwave until boiling point, pour over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Add the chilled butter and continue to stir until you have a smooth chocolaty consistency.

Let the ganache sit at room temperature until it cools before you ice the cake. (I don't have time for the sitting around part, so I just pop it in the freezer for a bit to cool down)

Spotty ribbon (Ribnz), courtesy of Elmarie Mentz