Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe.
My story:
There is one main reason why I’ve called my Guinness cake recipe “the Big Bang”: It was the very beginning of my culinary adventure as a vegan living at high elevation! I wanted to show my appreciation for the experienced telescope operator who had trained me. I knew that he liked Guinness beer and had heard of a Guinness cake before, but had never made it before. It was a hit! There was sort of an explosion, if you will. Suddenly everyone on the mountain was talking about the cake, and everyone wanted me to make it for their birthday. They didn’t even care that it was vegan! (I’m the only vegan at the observatory.) Multiple people declared that it was the best chocolate cake they’d ever had.
I shouldn’t assume that everyone knows what the Big Bang refers to in astronomy. Basically, it’s the almost universally accepted theory that the Universe started as a single point and then began to expand in all directions. Everywhere astronomers look, we can see the result of the Big Bang: space itself is expanding! Far away galaxies are moving away from our little corner of the world at faster and faster speeds. (This acceleration is caused by “dark energy,” which deserves its own post!) The astronomer Edwin Hubble (for whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named) observed this phenomenon with Mt. Wilson’s 100-inch telescope. Here he is pictured below:
above photos from the 2015 NPR article “Hubble’s other telescope and the day it rocked our world”
Now on to the baking!
Kitchen tools you will need:
oven
9-inch springform pan
parchment paper
large saucepan
whisk
small bowl
wire rack
hand mixer
cake stand
icing knife
Ingredients you will need:
FOR THE CAKE
Earth Balance unsalted butter (for greasing the pans)
1 cup Guinness Extra Stout
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) Earth Balance unsalted butter
3⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3⁄4 cup Violife sour cream
2 T Ener-G powdered egg replacer with 4 T of water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda
FOR THE TOPPING
1 1⁄4 cups confectioners’ sugar
8 ounces Open Nature cream cheese (found at Albertsons supermarket) at room temperature
1⁄2 cup Silk dairy-free heavy whipping cream
Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Butter the pan and line with parchment paper.
In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter.
Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat.
Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.
In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well.
Add to Guinness mixture.
Add flour and baking soda and whisk again until smooth.
Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.
Use your (clean!) fingers to break up lumps in the confectioners’ sugar.
Add cream cheese and blend until smooth using hand mixer.
Add heavy cream, and mix until smooth and spreadable.
Remove cooled cake from pan and place on a cake stand.
Ice top of cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness.
Notes on the recipe:
I am not being paid to mention specific brands! I have tried every variety of vegan cream cheese, vegan sour cream, etc. that I could get my hands on here in southern California, and have included the brand that gave me the best results in my opinion.
Also note that, for example, not everyone will want to have extra kitchen ware such as a cake stand and an icing knife. That’s okay! You can use a regular plate and a butter knife instead. Whatever works for you! I’m just writing the recipe as I make it.