125g unsalted butter (+ a little extra for greasing your loaf tin)
200g light brown sugar
100ml milk
2 eggs
100ml Guinness
40g cocoa powder
175g plain flour
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 bar of dark chocolate
For the cream cheese icing:
200g icing sugar
100g softened unsalted butter
100g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Baking equipment:
Baking paper
1x loaf tin (20cm x 9cm x 8cm deep)
1x pan
2x mixing bowls
1x whisk
1x sharp knife
An electric mixer
1x small palette knife
1x vegetable peeler
Share your creations with us!
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan/gas 4). Lightly grease a loaf tin with butter and line it with baking paper.
To create the loaf, melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat. Once melted remove the butter from the heat. To this whisk in the the cocoa powder & Guinness until there's no lumps remaining. Next, whisk the brown sugar, eggs & milk into the chocolatey Guinness mixture.
Combine the plain flour, bicarb of soda & salt in to a mixing bowl. Add your chocolatey Guinness mixture into the mixing bowl & whisk until just combined.
Pour your delicious cake mixture into the lined loaf tin & bake in the oven for 40 mins (or until a knife comes out of the middle of the loaf clean with no mixture on the knife).
Don't be tempted to dive in & try the cake yet! Let the loaf cool in the tin before lifting it out.
To make the icing, put the softened unsalted butter into the other mixing bowl. Use your electric mixer to beat the butter for 5 mins until it's turned a lighter colour.
Next, add the icing sugar spoon by spoon to the butter (otherwise you'll cover your kitchen with an icing sugar cloud!), use your mixer to combine the butter with the icing sugar in between each spoonful. Only once the icing sugar has all been incorporated, beat the icing mixture on a high speed (for approx. 5 mins) until it's light in colour. To make the icing extra indulgent, add the cream cheese & vanilla extract. Beat until only just combined for 30 seconds or so, any longer and the icing will lose it's shape.
Now we're at the fun part...decorating! Spread the cream cheese icing over the top of your cooled loaf. Using a palette knife smooth the sides of the icing to make it look like a Guinness pint!
We've decorated our loaf using a handful of our Zillionnaire sprinkles & some dark chocolate curls. To make these curls simply use a vegetable peeler, using some pressure run the peeler across the back of the dark chocolate bar. Sprinkle on top and enjoy!
As the icing has cream cheese in, we'd recommend keeping the loaf in the fridge & taking it out when you're ready to eat it.