Chocolate Guinness Cake – St. Patrick’s Day Continued…

I had always had what I considered to be a very good relationship with Guinness, the famous dark brown Irish stout, until an unfortunate St. Patrick’s Day evening out with college mates many years ago. I was living in Bath, England, spending my junior year 

abroad, taking a respite from the ivory tower of a New England women’s college. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and my friends and I met up with a few members of the university rugby team at a local pub. One of the rugby boys explained to me that it was necessary to

drink Guinness, and Guinness only, on this hallowed day. Not one to be a wet blanket, I joined in the fun and, five pints later, lived to regret it (I’ll spare you all the humiliating details, but I will say that I somehow ended up in someone’s garden picking a lovely bouquet

of flowers at 4 am)…I haven’t touched the stuff since, but I have found that Guinness, with its bitter, coffee-like flavor, makes a wonderful addition to chocolate cake. This simple, earthy cake (which I originally developed for The Cake Book) is exceptionally

moist and really only needs a dusting of confectioners’ sugar to finish it. But because the Guinness is bitter, the cake is not too sweet, so I suggest you serve it with some sweetened whipped cream or caramel or vanilla ice cream. I’ve included a recipe for my favorite accompaniment, Brown Sugar Whipped Cream. Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, or any day of the year. I’ll drink to that.

Latte Crème Caramel

I know that St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner and I should probably be posting about that, but the thought of making some green-frosted cupcakes or Irish soda bread or shamrock cookies just didn’t inspire me, despite the fact that I’m a ‘Boyle’. 

Yes, I’m told there’s even a town in Ireland called Boyle, but even that didn’t sway me to participate in the “kiss me I’m Irish” fun surrounding the day. I have been known to imbibe green beer when offered on March 17, but don’t ask me to be the one to add 

the food coloring; it’s against my principles. So I opted to hold off on the St. Patrick’s Day celebration until next week, and decided to make one of my favorite comfort desserts, crème caramel, instead. This one is flavored with coffee — instead of using instant espresso 

powder to flavor it though, I infuse the milk and cream base with whole coffee beans, which keeps its ivory color intact and gives it a lovely, subtle coffee flavor that pairs wonderfully with the sweet caramel. I guess, if you wanted, you could add some Bailey’s Irish Cream to the custard and serve it after your corned beef and cabbage dinner on the 17^th. Just don’t color it green.