It‘s Raining

So far so holiday good, but today it’s raining fit to flood so I’ve left the Scottish one happily in possession of the sofa, a good book, a cup of tea, plenty of ginger nuts and good intentions regarding some drawing and gone in search of internet access (care of my little sister - who’s about a foot taller than me in her heeled shoe’s - but is definitely young enough to be ’little’). Family time is proving to be very satisfactory - I was bribed with fresh Lobster which will never fail to turn me into an obliging and grateful human being.

Sadly it’s proving a challenge to get pictures from A) camera to B) computer and even harder to C) blogger so any images today will be recycled which is a shame because amazing fresh seafood aside one of the holiday highlights has been m’little sisters chocolate Guinness cake which definitely deserves a proper illustration - as it is I’ve got her to write down how she made it ... It’s an adaptation of a Nigella recipe but I can’t imagine sisters version being beaten so it’s the one I’ll stick with.

Dark Damp Lovely Luscious Guinness Cake
250ml Guinness                 
250g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate
200g caster sugar
200g soft brown sugar
142ml (small tub) sour cream
2 eggs
Tablespoon vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 and a 1/2  spoons bicarbonate of soda

Topping
1 small tub of  double cream
1 small tub of crème fraiche

Large spring form tin lined and primed, oven set to gas 4 /180 c
Put the Guinness and butter in a saucepan, heat gently until the butter is melted. Add the chocolate broken into pieces allow to melt and stir all together.
Add the sugars to the mix.
Beat together the sour cream eggs and vanilla, add to the Guinness batter, fold in the flour and bicarb, poor into the tin and bake for 45 mins to an hour.

When it’s cooled completely whip the cream for the topping, and fold in the crème fraiche - the overall effect is very guinnessey, and we want to see what sort of cupcakes this mix makes. Sisters use of crème fraiche in the topping cuts the sweetness of the cake with just a hint of the memory of the bitterness of a good pint (she’s a clever girl) I should also say that these quantities make a cake big enough to feed a small army, but it does go down remarkably fast.