Guinness Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

Name: Guinness Chocolate Ice Cream Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 34 min
Ingredients: 90 gm Flour; 50 gm Cocoa powder; 5 gm Baking powder; Pinch of Salt; 75 gm Brown sugar; 75 gm Castor sugar; 50 gm Butter; 40 ml Oil; 1 Egg; 100 ml Guinness Beer; 50 ml Guinness beer; 10 gm Castor sugar; 5 gm Vanilla; 100 gm Butter; 150 gm Cream cheese; 100 ml Whipping cream; 250 gm Icing Sugar; 15 ml Guinness beer

This Guinness chocolate cake has a contrasting texture of an intense dark chocolate mousse and a light crumbly chocolate cake. The cream cheese ice cream frosting resembles the richness of custard and refreshing feel of ice cream. Together making for a delicious dessert!

I have to be blatantly honest and say that I don’t drink, yet I love cooking and baking with all kinds of alcohol. The flavor it renders is close to umami in most recipes and I cannot even begin to try explaining it in words. I personally have tasted Guinness and it is an intensely rich stout. It originates from Dublin, Ireland and what better time to share this recipe than now what with St. Patricks Day around the corner. Guinness is known to have its quintessential look of a dark brown almost black color beer that has a cream colored foam on the top, much like this cake does have in a way

Now this dessert has 2 parts to it, the cake and the ice cream frosting. Once the cake batter is mixed through it can be baked or steamed (quick note here: I like steaming my Guinness chocolate cake for this dessert as it does yield a very mousse like moist texture that holds its integrity once frozen. It is a bit of effort and does require more patience but it certainly does make all the difference) after which it is soaked in a little Guinness and left to cool. It is then topped with the cream cheese ice cream frosting (try saying that fast) and left in the freezer to chill. This is what turns this cake from a regular cake to a frozen marvel.

After the cake and frosting have been frozen remove from the freezer and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 10 minutes or so before cutting with a knife that has been warmed in hot water (this will help cut neat slices upon serving). An important point to keep in mind is the cake tin. Once the cake has been baked or steam, remove the cake from the tin and line it well with cling film, ensure you are generous at this stage and let there be over hang as this will help remove the frozen cake later. This is one of the most important steps while preparing fro the cake as it will get stuck to the tin if you do not line the tin well.

Now the recipe suggests to use an electric hand beater however you could use a wooden spoon or whisk to start off the batter but once it has come together do not over work it. Let us quickly talk about the cooking methods for this cake, as mentioned above it can be steamed or baked. If you are steaming the cake, get yourself a large stock pot in which the suggested cake tin fits snugly into. Fill it with water a little more than 1/4 high and place a wire rack at the bottom, place the cake on top of the wire rack cover the tin with foil, place a lid over the stock pot and let it steam for 30-34 mins on medium heat until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out with wet cake crumbs. Things to keep in mind here, do not let the cake touch the bottom of the pan, keep an eye and check on the water (add more if needed).

If you are baking the cake you can transfer the cake tin to a preheated oven at 180ºC for 28-30mins. Keep in mind the cake cooks in approximately the same time if you steam or bake it however, the texture will vary as steaming injects moisture into the cake and baking does evaporate some of that moisture. To make the ice cream I would recommend using an electric hand beater to get as much air into the mixture as possible, this helps for it to stay light once frozen. The recipe does have a few substitutes and methods of preparation, we will have a look at them below.

A few Substitutes & Tips:

Eggless- The cake can be made eggless by substituting egg with 30gm yogurt (2 tbsp) or 1 flaxseed egg (1 tbsp flaxseed powder + 2 tbsp water). The method of adding either of these substitutes is the same. Just follow the recipe.

Gluten Free- I would recommend using gluten free flour mix (eg. Bobs Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Mix), You could also use a 70/30 mixture of gluten free oat flour and almond flour respectively.

Cocoa powder- Unsweetened cocoa powder here is essential. The only ingredient making this chocolate cake chocolate is the cocoa powder so don’t skimp on the quality or the amount.

Non Alcoholic- If you would like to leave the stout out you can substitute the recipe with the same amount of warm water and follow the recipe method as suggested. The cake once cooked can be soaked in a simple syrup of sugar and water instead of the Guinness.

Cream cheese- The ice cream gets is velvet like richness from the cream cheese and this helps it not to set rock hard in the freezer but maintain the texture of a softie. If you don’t have cream cheese I would recommend using crème fraiche, hung Greek yogurt or clotted cream but it will not have the same flavor.

Whipping cream- It is essential to use whipping cream and this is what makes the frosting an ice cream, without it the frosting will be too runny and not set at all.

Enough talk, let us get steaming!