Guiness and Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

for the cake

• 1 cup guinness
• 9 oz unsalted butter
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups superfine sugar
• ¾ cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

for the topping

• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 ¼ cups confectioners' sugar
• ½ cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
2. Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
3. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
4. When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the confectioners' sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsieved confectioners' sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.
5. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

I used two tins and sandwiched the cakes together cooking the cakes for less time until a knife comes out clean of the cake.