Guinness fruit cake recipe

If you're a fan of sticky, rich fruit cakes, then this recipe for Guinness fruit cake will suit you. I made this for the last meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club - the theme was 'Boozy Bakes'. The recipe came from the CCC Cookbook although I adapted it slightly. This would make a good base for a Christmas cake I think - although I didn't make one this year, next year I might dust off this recipe.

300g mixed dried fruit - my mixture was sultanas, raisins, and dried cranberries
330ml Guinness or other stout
2 eggs, beaten
100g soft light brown sugar
100g dark muscovado sugar
270g self-raising flour
1tsp mixed spice

Marinate the dried fruit in the Guinness for a day if possible, or at least 3-4 hours to make the fruit plump and sticky.
Stir the beaten eggs into the fruit and Guinness mixture. Add the sugars, and then sieve in the flour and spice, and mix well. Be careful not to leave any big lumps of dark sugar.
Pour into a prepared loaf tin (900g).
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C (160C fan), for at least an hour, until a skewer comes out clean.

I think this would be really good served with a nice knob of butter spread over, a bit like a malt loaf. I might like to try it with icing on too. This is a rich and warming cake, with a lovely deep flavour from the Guinness.

I recently wrote about why we love Christmas cake over on the Clandestine Cake Club website - please have a read! Please comment below and tell me why you love Christmas cake, and what sort you've made this Christmas.

Stamford Clandestine Cake Club - beverage bakes

On Monday, April 8th, 22 members of the Stamford CCC met with 19 cakes based on the theme 'Quench your thirst'.

This month's event, held at the Bertie Arms country pub, in Uffington, just outside Stamford, was sponsored by Yorkshire Tea. We were privileged to receive Yorkshire Tea tablecloths, a teapot, lots of cups, and a massive bag of teabags. What better way to celebrate a beverage-based bake than with a refreshing cup of tea!

Our beverage bakes were a triumph. We might have shown ourselves as somewhat alcoholic bakers (there were 11 alcohol-based cakes versus 8 non-alcoholic) but each and every baker put a lot of effort into their cakes. Here's a list of our bakes:

Coke and chocolate cake - Sophie
Ginger and lager cake - Steve
Stout cake - Mel
Cider cake - Anthea
Green tea and white chocolate opera cake - Simon
Beehive black cake (Guinness) - Rhoda
Mocha marble cake - Vic
Amaretto cake - Amanda
Cider fruit cake - Vicky
Margarita cake - Lisa
Snake bite and black cake - Johannah
Earl Grey and orange cake - Lucie
Raspberry milkshake cake - Judith
Pina Colada cake - Becky
Earl Grey and lemon cake - Esme
Red wine chocolate cake - Kelly
Lemonade cake - Natalie
Coffee cake - Sarah
Coconut and rum cake - Monika

Highlights of the evening had to be Simon's spectacular many-layered green tea and white chocolate opera cake, Lisa's margarita cake (if you had a whole slice you'd be over the limit, thanks to the delicious tequila frosting!), and Amanda's amaretto cake was a popular choice, despite her thinking it was a complete disaster. Comedy moments were shared by Mel's delicious creation of 'cake fudge' (you can make that again Mel!) and Vic's beautiful mocha marble 'biscuit cake' - "It's really nice dunked in a cup of tea!" said Vic.

We all shared disaster stories, a bit of a Q&A session for those caketastrophies we've all had, and much cake was eaten by all. As enjoyable as the night itself is the morning after, catching up with everyone's Twitter feeds about 'cake hangovers'.

Thanks to everyone who came and shared the Stamford cake love. It's a brilliant place for turning strangers into friends, for finding new recipes, and taking lots of delicious cake home.

Click here for more about Clandestine Cake Clubs. 

 

Clandestine Cake Club - Guinness choc cake

For the July meeting of Market Deeping's Clandestine Cake Club, I made a Guinness chocolate cake. The theme this month was 'Alcoholics Anonymous'. I also think this makes a cheeky entry into July's Tea Time Treats from Karen at Lavendar & Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked - this month's theme is summer fairs and cake stalls. A boozey cake would be my choice at a cake stand any day!

Welcome to July's Market Deeping CCC

I've never baked a boozy cake before so I was a bit wary of this theme, and I wasn't at all sure how this recipe would turn out. It was certainly a different method, and the mixture looked very suspect - dark like the night, lumpy, and bubbling up like a witches' cauldron!

Witches' caudron cake mix

This is probably the richest cake I've ever baked. It had a stout taste to it that wasn't overpowering and nicely cut through the sweetness of the chocolate - this was VERY chocolatey! The cream cheese frosting had a good tang to it that was just enough smoothness.

chocolate Guinness cake

The cake club was quiet this month, just four cakes again. We had a carrot and Cointreau cake, chocolate and whiskey sponge, and an Amaretto cream sponge. I felt totally caked out afterwards - each was very very rich and heavy, and in hindsight I'd rather have just eaten half a slice of each... I think I had a cake hangover for a good two days.

Amaretto cake

The chocolate Guinness cake recipe was from The Hummingbird Bakery 'Cake Days' book, although I've heard that Nigella does a good version of this too.

250ml Guinness
250g marg
80g cocoa
400g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
140ml buttermilk
280g plain flour
2 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp baking powder

Pour the Guinness into a saucepan, add the butter, and heat gently until melted.
Remove pan from heat and add cocoa and sugar. Stir.
Mix the eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla together, then add to the mixture.
Sift flour and other ingredients into a bowl, then pour in the dark mixture. Whisk together.
Pour into a 23cm (9in) tin prepared with baking paper.
Bake in the oven at 170 degrees (150 ish fan) for about 45 minutes.

I didn't have a tin this size - mine is only 20cm - and instead of leaving some mixture out I thought I'd just pour it all in and hope for the best. It turned out very tall, and the top was very bumpy. It also took about 1 hour 5 minutes to cook.

To frost, I sliced the top of the cake off to make it smooth and flat. To make the frosting, mix together 50g butter and 300g icing sugar until it resembles powdery snow. Then add 125g cream cheese and mix until smooth and fluffy. I would recommend a layer of melted apricot jam on to the cake at this point - I forgot to do this, and so the frosting ended up with a mottled cake-crumb pattern! To combat this, I just added more frosting. Finish with a light dusting of cocoa powder.

Choc Guinnes cake topless

This didn't look too special in the end, but my, it tasted special.

To find out more about the fabulous Clandestine Cake Clubs, click here.