Happy Birthday David!

I have a pretty close-knit core team at work and one of them is having a birthday Friday.  Since he is taking that day off I decided to bring in a cake today to celebrate, but what kind of birthday cake do you make for a man who has gone on a health kick and rarely eats sweets?  I searched until I came across a recipe for Guinness Chocolate Cake.  Perfect!  He does enjoy an adult beverage along with a good cigar, so I decided to give it a shot.  My first challenge was converting the receipt from UK measurements to US.  I wasn’t up to the task, but I found someone else who was.  Then I was surprised how hard it was to find a single serving of Guinness, so I ended up getting a four pack.  Aside from the immense amount of whisking involved in this recipe it was remarkably easy.

Guinness Chocolate Cake

If you would like to make this yourself, here’s the recipe:

1 cup Guinness (dark beer)

1/2 cup butter, cubed

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup baking cocoa

2 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup sour cream

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

TOPPING:

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened

1-1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

Grease a 9-in. springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper; set aside.  In a small saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted. Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. Combine the eggs, sour cream and vanilla; whisk into beer mixture. Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan.

Topping

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and cream; beat until smooth (do not over-beat). Remove cake from the pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Ice top of cakeso that it resembles a frothy pint of beer. Refrigerate leftovers.

Yield: 12 servings.

I’ll give the extra three beers as a gift to the birthday boy, and maybe tomorrow I’ll post a picture.

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