Chocolate Guinness Cake

One of our favorite things lately has been this heavenly chocolate cake.
We first made it for our St Patrick's Day celebration last week, and loved it so much we made it again this week! (I say we, but really Kent made it and I flitted here and there stirring occasionally and getting in the way. However, I did do the honors of placing the shamrock on top...very important.)

It's so dark and dense, and not too sweet. Just the way I love cake! After all that's what the frosting is for. So we added a little bit of Bailie's and Grand Marnier to sweeten up the whipped cream on top. I may not be able to drink, but this cake is better anyway!

Try it and you'll see what I'm talking about...

1 cup Guinness
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350 F, and butter and line a 9 inch spring form pan.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter — in spoons or slices — and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and baking soda.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool in the pan on a cooling rack.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the frosting. We just whipped up some heavy whipping cream and added our favorite liquors! Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of a Guinness pint and you are done!

-Recipe by Nigella Lawson

Visit some of our past favorite recipes here here and here! 

Our week in Instagram.

This week was a loooong sleepy one. For one reason or another we were averaging 4 hours a night.

Good thing we have a few pictures to jog our groggy minds of the days events.

1. It started out well though! Monday was a banner day.
I was feeling up to my ears Sunday night with things to do, things I wanted to do. But they all involved working at a desk in solitude. Which is almost hilarious to ask for when you spend the day with a charming little 3 year old -that doesn't nap. (I can't even write this post without answering countless questions, half playing hide and seek (thankfully she doesn't seem bothered that I'm always sitting in the same chair as my hiding place), singing songs to her piglet, and eating her famous Strawberry Soup and other plastic concoctions whipped up in her kitchen.

So in swooped Husband (raucous applause!), who took a personal day off from work and took the little dear when the sun came up on a day of outings so I could simultaneously rest and work! They had a blast together (a bouncy house gym, Red Robin for pizza and a balloon, and the library to read books.)

And I had a whole blissful day to hole myself up in my office, be creative, and get things done!

Everyone won that day.

2. What I was mainly working on and one of my biggest projects lately is a branding redesign for my friend's awesome non profit Zimbags. More coming on that soon!

3. Oliver is 33 weeks tomorrow, and I have to crane my neck to visit my toes.

I've been having contractions for about a week now (that's not even newsworthy, Greta did the same thing for months before she was born.) But it wouldn't be one of our children if we didn't have a few very late trips to labor and delivery to be monitored. Thursday night I exceeded the number of contractions I should be having without coming in to make sure it isn't pre term labor. So we ended up at the hospital very late, very tired and (myself) very peeved that all the thunder he was making was only raising every one's alarms, and for no reason. Good news being everyone is healthy and well!

4. Greta woke up The last couple days feeling under the weather. So that means pajamas all day, special viewing perks, and eating on the couch in her beloved Orange Fox Bag. (A sleeping bag with a fox tail and cover that looks like a fox.)

So that's that, and thank goodness it's Friday!

I think Kent and I are going to unwind my making a Guinness cake for tomorrow's Irish Feast, and playing a little cards.

Happy Weekend!

Oliver's Baby Shower

Dear friends Leslie and Meg threw Oliver and I a baby shower the other weekend. (Only, it took me way too long to post pictures here!)

In honor of Oliver's nickname it was a Boots and rain showers theme. And everyone wore their boots to boot!
All the details of the shower were so sweet and thoughtful.

Thank you ladies for the sweet showering of gifts and fun!

 

(The full album of all the fun is up for browsing on facebook.)

Nature points and laughs.

After all that talk of Spring yesterday, I wake up to this.

It's only an inch or two, and it will hardly justify making soup and doing other Snow Day activities. But it's enough to make me think twice about our outing to the nursery to pick up Spring bulbs.

I wonder what those chattering birds are thinking? Probably same as me. " What the? "

 

Bird Chatter.

 Hold the phone everybody! Do you know what I just heard?
I just stuck my head out the front door to be absolutely sure... But I heard the chirping of birds! The very first chirping of the year. Spring must be around the corner, and Oliver too.
When I sit and imagine having Oliver in our lives, it is newly May and Spring has arrived.
There are flowers on tables and next to sinks instead of Winter candles.
The window in the kid's room is open (and slamming all the doors of the upstairs when a breeze kicks in just right). But the whole upstairs smells like delicious Washington Spring. Washington Spring has the same magical scent every year (to me) . It smells the same as when I was 6, and playing dolls in my room on Avellana Circle with the window open (and the doors upstairs slamming when the breeze kicks in just right.)
And we are taking him to the Farmer's Market! Which will have just reopened and will be God's special treat for me for going through the ordeal of delivery.  Oliver's squishy little newborn frame is tucked into the sling as we walk by stalls and stalls of flowers, vegetables, fruit, and bread.
Even the birds are telling me that these things aren't too far off.


image via Martha Stewart

Our Week in Instagrams

Yes, although our trusty camera is back in spells*. I really use my phone a lot more frequently. And if I ever wonder, "What did I even do this week?" A look at my phone's picture history, is pretty trustworthy at telling the tale.

1.  Oliver, Boots, Boots-Baby, "Bootsy" Walter completed his 30th Week. And he is still the kicking-est baby around. It's almost alarming.

2. This week Greta's been...
Reading: Miss Suzy (That sweet little domestic squirrel)
Singing: this Heffalump Song by Carly Simon
Saying: Cawn't instead of Can't because she loves Kipper the dog and that's how he says it.
Eating: Her usual picky fare, but with the exciting new additions of oranges, raisins, (old favorites, but they have long been out of favor) and a voluntary bite of a fresh (unwashed) mushroom! To which she kindly replied "I think maybe I don't need the rest of that."
But we love to see that adventurous spirit!
                                     
3. Sunday evening to celebrate the Oscars (which I alone celebrate in our house, but the rest of the family humors me.) We went to the store and picked up the most delightful spread of treats to eat for the occasion. Kent performed executive chef duties (as he didn't care a fig about what people were wearing, and I did, and wasn't about to miss any of it.) He made a beautiful mache salad with specialty bacons, tomato, avocado, and shaved cheese, hand tossed -with the care you give young living things- in a homemade balsamic dijon vinaigrette. For encore there was warm baguette, Port Salut Cheese, and strawberries. A glass of the baby pinkest grapefruit Italian soda. And to bed our palettes back down and promise sweet dreams, we ended the night with Creme Brulee.
Oh, I'm hungry now. Best night of food I have enjoyed in a long time!

4. Today Greta and I have been exploring our most complex feelings as we discuss the contents of our board book "Baby Happy, Baby Sad."

And that's the week at a glance. Tomorrow my Dear Friends Leslie and Meg are throwing Oliver and I a little shower. I'm tickled pink! All the details have been shrouded in deepest darkest mystery, so all I know is to arrive at 1:00 with a Boots in my belly.
Will do!

* It's still a dog and pony show. "Charge up the camera dear! I want to take a picture today."