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!

Nacho Dip

It's that time of year when you start to get Christmas invitations for house and work parties and you're left to sign up what food you want to bring.  Well, this is an easy and delicious nacho dip that will be a success for that salty craving!


Nacho Dip
Taken from my family recipe book.

Makes 2 pie plates of dip. 


Ingredients:

1 block of cream cheese
1 250 ml tub of sour cream
1 package of taco seasoning mix
Ground beef
Mozza/Cheddar grated cheese
Salsa (heat of choice)
2 tin (or glass) pie plates


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.
Cook ground beef with taco seasoning as directed on package.
In a large bowl, mix cream cheese and sour cream until smooth.
Divide evenly between two pie plates and spread as a base into each pie plate.
Take salsa and spread over base evenly - about 1 1/2 cups for each pie plate.
Sprinkle cooked ground beef evenly over both plates.
Grate mozza/cheddar mixed cheese over the top.

Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serve with your favorite nachos or crackers!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Gold Muffin Liners! Over the last few days, I've been thinking about adding cream cheese as one of my favorite food groups. However, I realized it would be a slippery slope - and would have to add butter, chocolate, and cheese as their own food groups too. . . you understand how things would get complicated. One thing that remained simple and delicious was this recipe. Plus, I was on the hunt for new baking goodies and found these awesome gold muffin liners! Bonus! If you haven't already, you should check out the blog Annie's Eats linked below. It's a phenomenal professional blog that I often get some of my cooking inspiration from. With practice I hope to get better with everything with my own blog! I'm so glad that you've been following along and maybe even passing on some recipes to your friends :) Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins Adapted from http://annies-eats.net/ Makes 24 muffins. Ingredients: Filling: 8 oz. softened cream cheese 1 cup confectioners’ sugar Muffins: 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground cloves 1 TBSP plus 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 4 large eggs 2 cups sugar 2 cups pumpkin puree 1¼ cups vegetable oil Adding the cream cheese mixture Topping: ½ cup sugar 5 TBSP flour 1½ tsp ground cinnamon 4 TBSP cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces Directions: To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth.  Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter.  Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil.  Transfer to the freezer and chill. Make sure you let this chill for 4 or more hours - I would suggest doing it the night before to ensure it is well frozen. When I made mine it was a bit of a mess because I only let it chill for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 350.  Line muffin pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend.  In a small bowl mix the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil.  Mix on medium-low speed until blended.  With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend.  Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly.  Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (about 1/2 TBSP).  Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces.  Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well.  Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely.  Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffins. Bake for 25 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving.  AMAZING. If I had to rate the two pumpkin recipes this week - I'd have to say that I think I like this one more... that cream cheese centre is heaven!  Don't forget your topping!