Saturday, April 9, 2011

Week 11 - Chocolate Guinness Cake

Rest assured that while my blog posts have fallen slightly behind that my baking has not!  We've been very busy over the past couple of weeks and I just haven't been able to get my act together to post the yummy things that I've been working on. 



We look forward to St. Patrick's Day in our household because it's the one time of year that we make corned beef and cabbage.  We should make it more often...and I'm not really sure why we don't.  Two years ago, prior to our move to the Netherlands, our friends Brian and Rachel came over to help us celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  They had never had corned beef before and truth be told, I think they were a little skeptical.  I’m fairly certain that they enjoyed it because this year I received a message from Brian via Rachel that they were hoping for a corned beef dinner invite.  How could we say no??!!

Now, let me tell you a little something about me.  I love to bake.  (But you knew that already.)  I really do like trying new things, but many times I am afraid to try new things without having a test run.  Enter Brian.  Brian loves to tease me about my trial runs – so for week 11 – Brian got to be the guinea pig.  I decided to make Nigella’s Chocolate Guinness Cake.  I figured that if we were going to have corned beef and cabbage boiled in beer – why not have cake that is made with beer.  

 Guinness

 Guinness and Butter

 Guinness and melted butter

 Guinness, Butter, Sour Cream, Eggs and Vanilla

This cake was good, different, but good.  I’m not sure that I will try to make this exact one again next year, but I’m glad that I tried it nonetheless.  The biggest obstacle that I endured was that the recipe was all in grams.  Ever tried converting a recipe from grams to cups?  It’s slightly annoying.  I actually had a scale from the Netherlands and I weighed out the ingredients.  That was an extra step that I could have done without.  Live and learn I suppose.  The worst part is that I get super stressed when I try completely new recipes.  My husband gets irritated at me because I get snippy…but I strive for perfection – what can I say!

 (We had Irish Soda Bread too!)
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