In honour of Saint Patrick’s day I jumped at the chance to throw Guinness in a recipe to make it un-authentically “Irish”.  This Saturday I might just be hopping on the bandwagon of people who claim to have more Irish ancestry then is true (I do have some though, really!), enjoying dyed green beer and sporting a shamrock, but this dessert is actually a classy (and delicious) way to celebrate the day on which everyone is Irish-ish. And really, chocolate cake + beer…I knew good things were going to come out of the oven.

This recipe certainly doesn’t need to be reserved for St-Paddy’s day only, I will definitely be making this more than once a year!  The Guinness really does do something amazing to the cake; the result is incredibly rich, moist and intensely chocolatey.

I followed the recipe for Bon Appetit’s ‘Chocolate Stout Cake‘ for this one (you don’t have to use Guinness, any stout will do, but the Guinness worked very well for me!).  I actually halved the recipe because it seemed like a lot — it still made a double layer 8-inch round cake, so I think you could probably get two cakes out of the full recipe!

Also, you know those little balls that rattle around in your can of Guinness?? Well I’d been wondering what that was for ages, turns out it’s a little “widget” to keep the head of the beer nice and foamy as though it were on tap — cool, eh?

I leave you with a song that’s bound to make you feel a little Irish.  My grandfather taught my cousins and I this one when we were little, but I hadn’t heard the full version until I went searching for it tonight! Happy St-Patrick’s Day!