St. Patrick’s Day! Irish+St. Patrick’s Day=Guinness! This recipe makes two lovely bundt cakes—it can be halved, but why?? One for home, one for the pot-luck, or one for the party and one for the teachers’ break room! I doubt it will be hard to find a taker for the second cake 🙂

These cakes is delicious without being overly sweet, and if you make the cakes one day in advance, they are even better the second day! I found this recipe on Epicurious.com.

Two Guinness Chocolate Cakes

INGREDIENTS

For the Cake

• 2 cups Guinness—yes, you’ll need to open two bottles, and there will be some left in that second bottle 🙂
• 2 cups butter—yes, 2 cups, not two sticks
• 1½ cups cocoa powder—I like Hershey’s Special Dark
• 4 cups flour
• 4 cups sugar—are you seeing a pattern here? 4 sticks butter, 4 cups flour, 4 cups sugar, 4 half-cups Guinness. Eventually you’ll have this recipe memorized!
• 1 Tablespoon baking soda
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 4 eggs—surprised?
• 1 1/3 cups sour cream—four one-third cups!

For the Glaze

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 lb. semisweet chocolate—chocolate chips work, but that expensive chocolate you find in bars is even better 🙂

DIRECTIONS

1. Bring the Guinness and butter to boil, then add cocoa powder.
2. Whisk until smooth, then let this mixture cool while you do the other stuff—at this point I usually make the glaze since it takes so long to cool and thicken.

Glaze

1. Bring cream to simmer in heavy saucepan, then remove from heat.
2. Add in chopped chocolate and whisk until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth.
3. Refrigerate until glaze is VERY thick and pourable—original recipe said 2 hours, but it’s more like 4 hours—this amount of glaze will cover both bundt cakes.
   • Note: The glaze is different with each kind of chocolate. I have found the chocolate chip version to be the softest, and to take the longest to get thick but remain pourable.

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Prepare two 12-cup bundt pans either with butter or Pam for Baking. Hmmm, maybe I’m the only crazy person with two bundt pans! But certainly you can make one cake, and then after the first is made, make the second in the same pan 🙂
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 1½ teaspoons salt in large bowl to blend, then set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream.
5. Add in cooled Guinness-butter-cocoa mixture and beat just to combine.
6. Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture and beat briefly, on low speed, just to combine.
7. Divide batter amongst pans. Bake at 350° until tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
8. Let cakes cool for 10 minutes in pans then turn out to wire rack to cool.
   • If you only have one pan, wash out the pan, prepare it again for baking, and use the remaining batter to make the second cake.
9. When bundt cake is cool and glaze is thick, pour glaze over the top of the cake, then refrigerate for glaze to set. Glaze should drip nicely down the sides of the cake. ENJOY!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!  How are you going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day—aside from making and sharing these cakes?