Chocolate cake.

That’s all my girl Tai wanted for her birthday.  She’d been talking about it for weeks, and I assured her that I’d pony up with the goods.   

I had downed my first cup of coffee on Saturday morning only to realize that if I were to fulfill my promise, there was actually little time for creaming butter and constructing layers.   A beer was all I needed – specifically a stout  -- and I could make my pal’s birthday wish come true.

I have a handful of chocolate cake recipes up my sleeve, but this one, flavored with a beer, is possibly the easiest cake in the world, a one-pan, one stove-pot wonder requiring little more than a whisk and 15 minutes to assemble.  Wait, there’s more.  This is also one of the most alluring, eyebrow-knitting, lip-smacking chocolate cakes that will ever pass your lips.

I know, that’s quite a declaration.  But I’ve made this cake nearly a dozen times, and inevitably, everyone goes wild, begging for more. As my husband describes it, this is “grownup chocolate cake” -- not because of the addition of stout but because it’s not too sweet. The beer works in two mysterious ways, as far as I can tell; first, it imparts spice and allows the cocoa to be its heady self; then, it works as a batter tenderizer, almost to a damp state, which results in one unctuous bite after the other.

When the cake cooled, I pulled together the icing, a cream cheese-centric affair,  but alas, my electric beater died on the spot.  Because the icing is so forgiving, it took kindly to my circumstances and whipped beautifully with a little hand-cranked action of a rubber spatula (and some elbow grease).

As to be expected, the birthday girl was thrilled with her cake, dived in mouth first and declared it “the best.”  After all, the best things in life are simple. 

P.S.: Yes, you can make this cake in the middle of the week while multi-tasking and still make someone very happy. It's that simple.

Chocolate Guinness Cake
From "Feast" by Nigella Lawson

Ingredients
Cake
1 cup (as in 8 ounces) Guinness stout or chocolate stout (P.S. you will have leftover beer)
1 stick unsalted butter (Equal amounts of Earth Balance shortening works just as well), sliced
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups granulated sugar
¾ cup sour cream (equal amounts of plain yogurt work just as well)
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
Icing
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup confectioners' sugar
½ cup heavy cream
Optional: a dash of vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line bottom with parchment paper.

2. Pour Guinness into a large saucepan, add butter over medium heat and stir or whisk until melted.

3. Whisk in cocoa powder and sugar. Reduce heat to low.

4. In a small bowl, beat sour cream with eggs and vanilla and then add to stovetop mixture, whisking until well integrated.

5. Finally, add flour and baking soda, using either a whisk or rubber spatula to incorporate into batter until flour specks are no longer visible.

6. Pour cake batter into greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour (Check at 45 minutes for doneness, poking a skewer in center.).

7. Leave to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

8. When cake is cold, gently peel off parchment paper and transfer to a platter or cake stand.

Make icing:

9. Place cream cheese and confectioners' sugar in a mixing bowl, and whip with an electric beater, until smooth (You may also do this with a food processor.).

10. Add cream and beat again until you have a spreadable consistency.

11. Ice top of cake, starting at middle and fanning out, so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

Yields about 12 slices.

Photo credit: Kim O'Donnel.