What Katie Ate: Guinness Chocolate Cake

I have recently become obsessed with the food and drink blog, What Katie Ate. (great title for a blog, dontcha think?) This phenomenal website is fronted by Katie Quinn Davies, an Irish graphic designer turned food blogger and photographer who now resides in Sydney, Australia. Katie has re-focused her creative abilities toward hatching a new-found career in food photography and food styling. Working out of her own fully-equipped studio in Sydney and taking all photographs in natural daylight, Katie often creates, styles, art directs and photographs food photography briefs from concept to completion. I fell in love with her recipe and photographs of her Guinness Chocolate Cake, and can't wait to test it out this fall!

Guinness Chocolate Cake Recipe

Cake Ingredients

•250 g (1 c. and 2 tbsp) unsalted butter

•250 ml (1 c.) Guinness

•75 g Dutch process cocoa ( 3/4 c.), sifted

•275 g (2 + 1/4 c.) all purpose flour, sifted

•2 tsp. baking soda

•400 g (2 c.) sugar

•2 medium eggs

•150 ml (2/3 c.) sour cream

•1 tbsp. good quality vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients

•300 g (1 + 1/3 cup) cream cheese

•150 g (1+1/2 c.) powdered sugar, sifted

•150 ml (2/3 c.) cream, whipped

Cake Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Add butter, cocoa and Guinness to a saucepan. Warm over a medium heat and stir until melted. Set aside for 5 to 10 minutes to cool slightly.

2. Add flour, baking soda and sugar to a large mixing bowl and mix together well. Pour in the Guinness/cocoa/butter mixture, lightly combine, add the eggs and sour cream and beat everything together until well combined. The batter should be thick and dark chocolate in color.

3. Pour into a greased and lined 10″ angel food pan (or another straight-sided tube pan) and cook in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake.*Note: This cake is very moist inside, so use your judgment regarding the skewer test. Do not leave in the oven until the cake has totally dried out — cook long enough so there is no uncooked cake on the skewer but there may be a few moist crumbs sticking to it after an hour of cooking. [Please note: Katie baked this in an 8.5" x 3.5" pan. If you make this in a regular angel food cake pan, you should start checking for doneness at least 15 minutes early.]

4. Leave to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from the cake tin and placing on a wire wrack to cool completely.

Frosting Instructions

1. Place the cream cheese into the bowl of a mixer and beat on a low-medium speed using a whisk attachment (I find a paddle attachment tends to over-beat the cheese). Whisk until the cheese is smooth and there are no big lumps remaining.

2. Gradually, using a large spoon, add in the sifted powdered sugar and beat gently to combine. After 2 to 3 minutes, stop the machine, scrape any excess frosting from the sides of the bowl and beat on medium speed until lump free.

3. Remove bowl from mixer and gently fold in the whipped cream, mixing to fully combine.
4. Place cooled cake on a cake stand and add the frosting, spreading out just to the edge without going over the side (never go over the sides of the cake) until the cake resembles a pint of the creamy black stuff! The idea is to capture the essence and simplicity of a pint of Guinness. Cheers!