If you're looking for a wow factor cake, or indeed a cake for a Potter enthusiast then this is your answer! Its a little fiddly to make but baking beginners will definitely be able to cope with this recipe!
The cake is moist, the icing sweet, pairing perfectly with the Guinness undertones and the golden snitches on top add a luxury feel (when does gold not?).
Here is what you'll need to make this heavenly, incredibly indulgent treat.
The Guinness Cake
The Cake
250 ml Guinness
250 grams unsalted butter
75 grams cocoa powder
400 grams caster sugar
142 ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
275 grams plain flour
2 ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
The Topping
300 grams cream cheese
150 grams icing sugar
125 ml double cream (or whipping cream)
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line a 23cm / 9 inch springform tin.
Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until it has melted.
Once this has happened you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the buttery, beery pan and then finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.
Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin (I also like to pop a circle of baking parchment on the bottom just to be sure) and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Keep checking from about the 35 min mark, no-one likes an overbaked cake! Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.
Once the cake has cooled you can ice it. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and beat them both together.
Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake - not too neatly though! You want it to look like the frothy top of a pint of Guinness.
The Golden Snitch Truffles
Ingredients
128g semi-sweet chocolate chips (or dark chocolate)
64g whipped cream
2 tbsp vanilla extract or flavor of choice.
32g unsweetened cocoa powder
43g cup dark chocolate, 60% or higher
Supplies
Greaseproof Paper
Edible Gold Powder
Edible Gold Spray
Decent paint brush (I used an old make-up brush)
Pastry bag or a sandwich bag.
Whip the cream and vanilla essence until
stiff peaks form. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a ban marie and
let it cool. Fold in the whipped cream. (The mixture should resemble a dense
mousse.)
Chill the mixture in the freezer or
fridge until it’s a manageable consistency. Mix in as much of the cocoa as you
need, use as you would flour, keep adding cocoa until you are able to roll
balls smoothly without sticking them sticking. Return to freezer for a while if
they are too sticky.
Transfer the rounded truffles to
clean wax paper. You’re going to want to flatten the bottoms a little bit to
make them sit better. You can either squash them down or drop them from a little
height, this gives them a smooth bottom (if only it was that easy for all of
us!).
Using the paint brush, dust the
truffles one at a time with the gold powder/glitter. I like to also give them a
quick spray with the spray on gold just to seal them.
Remove the gilded truffles from the
wax paper and set aside (store in the refrigerator until you need them). Save the
golden waxed paper – we’ll need this in a second for the wings!
Melt the dark chocolate and load into
the sandwich bag. Snip a small hole in the corner (I just make a little hole
with the end of a knife). Drizzle the chocolate onto the gilded wax paper you
saved, making wings about 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. As long as the wings are relatively stable
any design will work, the one below is just one I found to work!
Once you’ve filled your wax paper,
freeze the wings to set them (about 2 minutes). To figure out how many wings
you’ll need to make, count your truffles, multiply by 2 and then add 5 or so
extras because you’ll inevitably break a few or make some duds.
Spray gold on set wings, thoroughly
coating but not drenching. Freeze to set.
Carefully remove wings from the
paper, the paper should just peel away from the back. The gold should stick to
the bottoms and come up when you lift the wings, so both sides are golden.
To assemble, you’ll need one truffle
and two wings that look roughly the same!
Gently press the wings into the sides
of the truffle. If your truffles are the right consistency, the wings should
stay in place. If not, I use a little bit of left over melted chocolate.
Just dab it on the inside of the wings and hold for a second.
Repeat until you have done them all, If
you find your wings are melting as you go place them in the freezer for another
blast of cold.
Place them on top of the cake. Make sure you store in the fridge
until the cake is needed as the wings are very heat sensitive!
