I suppose this post could have been saved until St Patrick’s Day given that the key ingredient here is Guinness. However, I think we all appreciate a few more cake pictures in our lives. The creamy mascapone icing on this cake is a dream and makes the uncut version of this cake actually look like a pint of stout. I made this cake one Sunday afternoon before going to a gig my boyfriend happened to be reviewing and I ended up telling one of the musicians (George AKA The Lion and the Wolf) about the cake I made that afternoon and I wished I’d taken some along as he immediately livened up when I mentioned it.

Anyway, to make your own Guinness cake you will need:

110g salted butter

2 large eggs

200ml Guinness

275g soft brown sugar

50g cocoa powder

175g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

For the icing:

250g mascapone (I used low fat and it was fine)

250g icing sugar

(This cake can be made in a loaf tin or a 20cm deep round tin)

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line your cake tin. Cream together your butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and then beat in your eggs a little at a time.

Add the Guinness and mix well and then sift in the flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and last but not least the cocoa powder. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Pour the whole thing into your lined tin.

Bake the cake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out of the cake clean. I would advice putting grease proof paper on your cake after about 35 minutes or it can come out looking a bit singed.

While your cake is cooling prepare your icing by beating together your icing sugar and mascapone with a fork. Once your cake has cooled decorate with the aforementioned icing. As you can see my cake looks a tiny bit messy – I rushed this as we were trying not to linger in the house too long.

This is the perfect cake for those who love their cakes rich but not sickly sweet!

If you want to read D’s review of the gig click here. I highly recommend you check out both the featured artists as both are simply delightful!