When I lived in London I tasted the Guinness chocolate cake, a chocolate cake flavored with Guinness beer, a dark and bitter beer, which gives the cake a very special flavor. Not long ago a friend of mine told me that she celebrated her birthday with a chocolate cake and red beer: I wanted to try and the result was excellent. Garnished with a frosting of mascarpone, philadelphia and icing sugar, with a creamy and light consistency, it creates a pleasant contrast both in color, light and dark, and in flavor, intense and bitter and sweet and velvety.
Ingredients for a 22 cm / 9 inch springform tin
- 3 eggs
- 250 dark brown sugar
- 200 gr all purpose flour
- 250 gr butter
- 70 gr bitter cocoa
- 330 ml red beer or Guinness beer
- 1 sachet of yeast
- a pinch of salt
for the topping
- 200 gr mascarpone
- 200 gr. philadelpiha
- 250 gr icing sugar
Method
In a bowl put the butter at room temperature and the sugar. With an hand mixer, or stand mixer with a flat whisk, whip until you have a soft cream. Add the eggs, one at a time, always mixing.
Sift the flour into the bowl, mix well, then add the salt and the unsweetened cocoa. You will get a compact and dark mass. Insert the yeast and mix well.
Pour the beer slowly, always continuing to mix until it is completely absorbed by the mixture.
Butter and line a 22cm / 9 inch springform tin
Pour the mixture into a the greased and lined tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. If you see that the surface of the cake becomes too dark, cover it with aluminum foil.
After the cooking time, remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
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 and the mascarpone until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat to combine. You will get a soft and thick cream.
Ice the top of the black cake into wavs tufts that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.
