Chocolate Guinness cake

With Frangelico Swiss buttercream

Cake
3 500ml cans of Guinness, reduced to 1/3
500g butter, melted
2 cups brown sugar
8 eggs
4 cups ground almond
2 cups cocoa
3 tsp baking soda
Toasted hazelnuts, to garnish

Preheat oven to 160°C and grease and line two 30cm tins. In a food processor, combine butter and sugar and mix on high. Add eggs one at a time then add the dry ingredients. Add the Guinness to the mixture. Pour into tins and bake for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean. If cakes sink in the middle, press down sides while still warm. Cool for 10 minutes in the tins then transfer to a cooling rack.

Buttercream
6 egg whites
1 ⅓ cups caster sugar
400g butter, cubed and softened
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
⅓ cup Frangelico

Place egg whites and sugar in a small heatproof bowl and place over a pan of just simmering water. Stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is slightly foamy, about five minutes. Remove from the heat, pour into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high until thick and glossy. Add the butter slowly, beating well. Add the vanilla and Frangelico.

Assemble

Ice the cakes, both between the layers and on the sides. Garnish and decorate with finely chopped toasted hazelnuts.

Recipe kindly supplied by:

Chef Lewis Beattie
Aparima Restaurant and Bar
17 Orepuki-Riverton Highway, Riverton
(03) 234 8502