Chocolate Beer & Bacon Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
I adore Nigella, I love her passion for cooking and she is one sexy Mumma!
The one thing I love about this cake is that is has beer AND bacon in it! I am going to give it a go on the weekend.
Do you have a favorite recipe you like to cook that includes beer? If so I would love to hear from you.
Jo xx
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- 1 cup beer (your favourite kind)
- 250g/8.83ozs butter
- 1/2 cup mascarpone or cream cheese, softened (you could even use sour cream)
- 1 3/4 cups plain all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 3/4 cup cocoa, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 350g/12.36ozs. brown sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 200g/7ozs. dark chocolate chips
- 2 rashers streaky bacon, fried and then cut up into squares*
Chocolate gloss icing
- 175g/6 ozs dark chocolate drops
- 150ml/ 5 fl. ozs double cream
- 1 tablespoon butter
*You can add more bacon to this recipe by chopping up 4 cooked rashers finely and sprinkling it on top of the cake or along the sides. It depends on how much you want the bacon flavour – it is a great addition to the cake
Step 1 – Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line a long rectangular tin with parchment on the base and sides. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the beer. Whisk in the mascarpone.
Step 2 – Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt into a large bowl. I usually never sift things but cocoa tends to be lumpy as does bicarb and you don’t want lumps of either. In a jug whisk the sugar and eggs together. Pour half of the butter beer mix into the flour and then half the sugar egg mix and then repeat until it is mixed together. Add in the chocolate chips and stir to distribute. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes. Cool in the tin for a few hours or overnight.
Step 3 – Trim the cake so that it sits flat when upturned. Place the cake on a cooling rack with a tray underneath to catch the drips. Brush away any little crumbs. You can of course do a chocolate ganache crumb coat beforehand but I was running out of time.
Step 4 – Place the chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl and melt them together over simmering water or in a microwave. Stir in the butter. Pour three quarters of the icing over the whole cake, making sure it covers the top and the sides completely, scooping up the excess from the tray with a palette knife as necessary. Use the remaining 1/4 of the icing to patch up any gaps with a palette knife. Place the bacon on top and allow the icing to set.