Brilliant basics

1 HOUR 25 MINUTES + COOLING | SERVES 10 | EASY

Chocolate Guinness cake

Guinness 250ml

salted butter 175g, cubed, plus extra for the tin

dark chocolate 75g, roughly chopped

vanilla bean paste 1 tbsp

eggs 3 large

soured cream 100g

caster sugar 200g

soft dark brown sugar 75g

plain flour 300g

bicarbonate of soda 2 tsp cocoa powder 40g

ICING

double cream 300ml

soft dark brown sugar 50g

cocoa powder 3 tbsp

1

Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter a deep 23cm loose-bottomed cake tin, and line with baking paper.

2

Put the Guinness, butter, chocolate and vanilla in a medium pan over a low heat, stirring until combined and smooth. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. 3

When the mixture is slightly cooled, whisk in the eggs, followed by the soured cream, until smooth. Mix together the sugars, flour, bicarb and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Gradually pour the wet ingredients into the dry, whisking continuously, until you have a smooth batter. 4

Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour-1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool completely in the tin. 5

To make the icing, put the cream, sugar and cocoa powder in a large bowl and whisk to soft peaks. Remove the cake from the tin, put on a serving plate, and dollop the icing on top, spreading it with the back of a spoon to cover the surface.

PER SERVING 648 kcals | fat 39.5G saturates 23.8G | carbs 61.2G | sugars 36.4G fibre 3.4G | protein 9G | salt 1G

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