Guinness Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Icing

Happy St. Patty's Day!


I hope you are donning your green shirt, listening to an Irish band of your choice, and sipping back a Guinness. I do have a secret though - I don't actually like Guinness. However, to solve my yearly problem of not being able to partake in this particular St. Patty's Day tradition - I've decided to bake my Guinness in a cake. And oh what a cake it is! 


I can assure you if you need to get your "a Guinness a day" for health benefits (as seen by some classic ads : http://www.guinness.com/en-ca/AdsGallery.html?cntry=world&adsclass=classic) - you can try some of this cake!


Guinness Chocolate Cake
Adapted from www.simplyrecipes.com


 Ingredients:

1 cup of Guinness

10 TBSP unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cups dark brown sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

1 TBSP pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

           

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease 9-inch springform pan with butter

3. Open a Guinness and pour 1 cup into a saucepan – the remainder pour in a glass and drink (or give to someone else).  Add butter and cook over a medium heat until the butter has melted.

4. Whisk cocoa powder, white and brown sugar until combined and remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

5. In a large bowl combine sour cream, eggs, and vanilla until well combined. Slowly add butter-beer mixture (doesn’t that sound delicious?) and whisk together.

6.  In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add to beer-butter bowl and whisk together until well combined.

7. You will need to make sure your hands are extra clean because you will have to dip your finger in and taste this batter – mmmmm! But remember – you will have the bowl after so don’t go crazy.

8.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and give the pan a few short drops on the counter to shake out any air bubbles. 

9. Bake for 55 minutes. Run a knife around the edge to separate the cake from the pan and remove the springform pan edge. Allow to cool on wire rack – COMPLETELY.  (At least 3 hours – I did it before I went to bed and iced it the next morning).

Once your cake is completely cooled you may apply this delicious icing!

Cream Cheese Icing

Adapted from www.simplyrecipes.com

Ingredients:

½ cup of butter @ room temperature

1 package (8 oz) of cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups of powdered sugar (you can add more depending on how sweet you like it)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. With an electric mixer, mix butter and cream cheese together on a medium speed until very smooth.

2.  Add vanilla and mix, slowly adding powdered sugar until you get your desired thickness and sweetness.

3. Using a blunt knife or spatula, spread over your yummy cake!

This combo is amazing. Please eat your Guinness cake responsibly.

 Éirinn go Brách!

Chocolate Delight Crinkle Cookies

Cocoa. It sounds, tastes, smells, and looks delicious. I have found a new favorite cookie - with cocoa. Lots of cocoa. I broke out my KitchenAid mixer, the Christmas tunes, and my red and white polka dot/snow flake apron and went to town.

This cookie may also make you do completely irrational things. Like eat it directly out of the oven while drinking out of a milk carton. I don't know anything about that - but that's what I've heard.

Please enjoy these - I am thinking that I may need to bake another batch since my cookie gift tins are taking it's toll on my personal cookie stash :)  It makes a yield of about 50. Think a dark deep chocolate taste balanced out with some icing sugar to make Christmas explode in your mouth.

Chocolate Delight Crinkle Cookies

Adapted  from simplyrecipes.com
Makes about 50 cookies.


Ingredients:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
4 eggs
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup confectioner's sugar

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can use  a wooden spoon and a regular bowl) beat together cocoa powder, white sugar, and oil until it comes together into a shiny, gritty, dark batter.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds each.  Add the vanilla and beat thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into the chocolate mixture on low speed until just combined - don't over mix.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough for 4 hours or overnight.

Preaheat oven 350 and line baking sheet with parchment paper.  Place confectioner's sugar in a large plate with a lip.  Using a spoon, get clumps of the chilled dough and roll them into 1 inch (2.5 cm) sized balls using your hands. Roll the balls in the confectioner's sugar and place on the cookie sheet. You should be able to fit approximately 12-16.

Bake for 13-15 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Chews

 In my household, these chews are commonly called "ooie-gooies" and taken from a long time family friend Elizabeth.  I usually like to make a variety of the cookies you'll see on the blog and do up some fun Christmas presents with tins. Lots and lots of tins....Christmas trees, reindeers, polka dots, lights, trees, whatever Christmas themed tins you can find - get 'em while they're around and I promise that people will appreciate homemade cookies!

Also, I need to get on the ball with making some cookies for cookie exchanges with friends....and not eat them before I give them away ;)

Chews

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1 2/3 cups white sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Heat butter, sugar, and milk in a medium saucepan until it boils.
Remove from heat.
Stir in rolled oats, cocoa, coconut, and vanilla.

Mix ingredients until well blended. Drop by spoonful unto cookie sheet and cool in refrigerator.  Can freeze for a few weeks.

Chocolate delish!

Christmas Skor Bark

Sometimes I have trouble making my baked goods look really perfect and pretty. I certainly am a messy cook in the kitchen, and I'm trying to make more "refined" finished products by taking more time for the finishing touches. As this comes with practice, it's sometimes nice to have a recipe that you're literally going to crack into messy pieces and be totally OK with that! 

This is a recipe that's always looks really great in a Christmas tin - and is so diverse that you can make it so many different ways (see variation note below!).  

If you do try some exciting new combos, please leave me a note - I would love to try some new ideas from you too! :)

Christmas Skor Bark
Adapted from http://homecooking.about.com/

Ingredients:

1 cup of butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 box (about) graham crackers

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup of Skor Chipits

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with tinfoil. Arrange whole graham crackers to fit the bottom of the pan in a single layer, breaking up the last few to fit the space.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add brown sugar and white sugar. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and let the mixture gently bubble for 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

Carefully pour sugar/butter mixture evenly over the graham cracker layer. Spread to cover. Bake for 10 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let rest until bubbling subsides. Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top. Wait about 2 minutes for chocolate to melt, and then use a spatula to gently spread chocolate chips into an even layer on top of the toffee graham crackers.

Sprinkle with the Skor Chipits, pressing down gently into the chocolate.

Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for 2 hours. Peel foil from chilled bark. Break into 2-inch irregular pieces.

Refrigerate any leftovers. You can also freeze this but I wouldn’t recommend it be over a couple weeks as it can taste stale.

For variations, ask yourself, “What’s my favorite chocolate and candy or nut?”

Chocolate – use milk, dark, or white chocolate

Toppings – 1 cup of chopped macadamia nuts, honey roasted peanuts, candy, candycane, etc.    

Be creative and have fun!