First post of 2011

You would not believe the schedule I have kept since last we spoke!!!  I am on spring break with only four weeks of culinary school left and then graduation.  I am getting ready to make a Chocolate Guinness Cake for St. Patty's Day and I have LOTS to share with you guys.  I started all those soup posts and they are saved in my draft pile and I will finish and post those sometime.  I also ran into a snag with budget and have not been keeping up with the Dorie Greenspan recipes but will be back on that by May I hope.  It requires extra ingredients and we are on the Dave Ramsey budgeting plan and often don't have that little extra for the odd ingredients needed.  I will eventually but right now I need the spending discipline.  I tend to blow budget on food and books... it is who I am.

Here is a photo of the Guinness Cake I made last year... just in case you want some foodie photos to tide you over.  I have a slew of them from work I hope to start putting up for you on a regular basis and some cool school restaurant pics, too.  Just give me some time... thanks for being patient as I finish this phase of my life and move into the professional chef phase.  You guys are a bunch of good eggs!  :)

Ingredients for the cake:

1 cup Guinness
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Ingredients for the topping:

8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preheat the over to 350 F, and butter and line a 9 inch springform pan.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter — in spoons or slices — and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the frosting. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sift over the confectioner's sugar and then beat them both together. Or do this in a processor, putting the unsifted confectioners' sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps before adding the cheese.

Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Makes about 12 slices

From Feast by Nigella Lawson. Photographs by James Merrell. Copyright 2004 Nigella Lawson. Photographs Copyright 2004 by James Merrell. Published by Hyperion. All Rights Reserved.