Baking for Beginners: Guinness Free Guinness Cake

Well this weekend it is St Patrick's Day, Mother's Day and also hugely importantly it's Domestic Sluttery's 3rd birthday today! Well, if thats not a good enough reason to bake a chocolate cake then I don't know what is.

When home I have a pretty well stocked pantry (I say pantry, it's actually just a shelving unit by the back door). I am however staying at my sister's at the moment and she never bakes so has no need for scales, cake tins or mixing bowls so this recipe is not only really easy but uses the quantities that the ingredients were bought in and was baked in an oven friendly saucepan! She does however have tablespoons (and thank heavens a corkscrew) so we were good to go.

I have used a packet mix chocolate cake as I wanted to make something that even my baking phobic sister would be happy to make. I pimped up the cake mix a bit with added cocoa to get a darker more Guinness-like cake and added chocolate chips because, well, aren't they always a welcome addition in a cake? I did make the white chocolate fluffy topping from scratch though. I wanted it to be really light, like the top of a pint of the black stuff. It was a bit of an experiment using whatever my lovely sister happened to have in her fridge (i.e no butter) and it turned out brilliantly (phew). Actually, it turned out so well that I will forever more make my icing this way! The cake mix needed 250ml water but as I added the extra cocoa powder and chocolate chips I bumped that up by 30ml.

You'll need:

• 1 packet chocolate cake mix (I used a 500g Betty Crocker Devil's Food cake Mix)
• 3 medium eggs
• 70ml vegetable oil
• 280ml water
• 3 heaped tblsp cocoa powder
• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 1x 200g pack cream cheese (I used Philadelphia Light)
• 150g bar white chocolate
• 200ml whipping cream
• 1 heaped tblsp icing sugar
• 1 capful vanilla extract

Make it!

1. Add the cocoa and chocolate chips to the cake mix and bake according to the packet instructions. My packet said to divide the mix between 2 cake tins but as I was using one large container it took twice as long to cook. I just checked it every now and then by putting a knife into the middle and when it came out clean it was ready. 
2. Whip your cream until peaks stand up happily without collapsing. In a separate bowl beat your icing sugar and vanilla extract into your cream cheese. Melt your white chocolate and leave to cool until just warm then add it to the cream cheese mixture and beat to combine. Stir in your whipped cream. 
3. Once your cake has cooled completely cover with your cream cheese topping (if your cake has risen in the middle just slice the bulge off to level it, turn the cake upside down and frost what was the base).