Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope you have a magical day and there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow ;-) The combination of the Guinness and chocolate in this cake, is truly heavenly. It's this very cake that inspired me to create my Chocolate Growler cake, using Old Growler beer from Nethergate Brewery. I tried a buttercream topping for this version, but I thing it would also be amazing with a mascapone topping, like my cappuccino cake.

Ingredients 250ml Guinness 250g organic unsalted butter 80g organic cocoa powder 400g dark muscovado sugar 2 large organic eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract 140ml buttermilk 280g organic plain flour 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp baking powder

Topping 170g organic unsalted butter (room temperature) 340g icing sugar 2 tsbp water 1 tsp vanilla extract

one 23cm (9in) diameter spring-form cake tin

1. Preheat the oven to 170c/ 150c fan/gas mark 3, then line the base of the tin with baking parchment.

2. Pour the Guinness into a saucepan, add the butter and gently heat until it has melted. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the cocoa powder and sugar into the warm liquid. I would put this mixture in to a clean bowl to help bring down the temperature further before you add your eggs. No one wants scrambled eggs in their cake. Mix together the eggs, vanilla extract and buttermilk by hand in a jug or bowl, and then add this to the mixture in the bowl.

3. Sift together the remaining sponge ingredients into a large bowl or into the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer. Using the mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand-held electric whisk, set on a low speed, pour in the contents of the bowl with the Guinness mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are incorporated.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes (some ovens may take longer so be patient) or until the sponge bounces back when lightly pressed and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Set aside to cool, and then remove from the tin on to a wire rack, making sure the cake is cold to the touch before you add your topping.

5. For your topping, beat your butter in your mixer, turn down to a slow speed and add your sifted icing sugar, slowly, to avoid a snow storm of icing sugar! Once mixed in, add the vanilla and the water and turn up the speed and mix until light and fluffy. Then get your palette knife and add your light, fluffy topping to your rich and dark Guinness chocolate cake.

I make a version of this in my Signature range using local Growler Beer. Looking for Wholesale cakes suffolk? Visit my website for more information moomoocakes.co.uk.