
Yvonne Cobb's Irish Stout Chocolate Cake
Don't be fooled! The deep, malty flavour of the stout in this cake, combined with the sweetness of chocolate and the lightness of cream cheese frosting makes it a unique and delicious way to celebrate the fusion of Irish heritage and cooking!Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with Yvonne's recipe for a delicious Irish Stout Chocolate Cake!
Ingredients
Cake ingredients:250ml Irish stout, alcohol free can be used250g unsalted butter75g cocoa powder50g dark chocolate pieces400g brown sugar150ml sour cream2 large eggs1 tbsp vanilla extract275g plain flour2½ tsp bicarbonate of sodaIcing ingredients:175g butter350g icing sugar2 tbsp of Irish whiskyYou will also need:WhiskSpatulaMixing bowlSieveLarge wide saucepan9 inch springform cake tin
Method
For the cake:Preheat the oven to 160°C fan, and grease and line a 23cm/9 inch tin.Pour the Irish stout into a large wide saucepan, then add the butter and chocolate pieces and heat until they've both melted into the stout, then whisk in the cocoa and brown sugar.Beat the sour cream together with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the saucepan and whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda.Pour the cake batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour in the oven.This cake is damp, so make sure it's cooled completely before icing.For the icing:Whisk the butter for 5 minutes, then slowly add in the icing sugar.Add the whisky and continue to beat until you have a spreadable consistency.Ice the top of the cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous Irish pint!

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BreakingNews.ie
15 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Ireland's Greenest Places: Gain recognition for your favourite outdoor space
The details of the search for Ireland's Greenest Places 2025 have been announced. Anyone living in a community, village, suburb, or town anywhere on the island of Ireland can help their favourite outdoor space gain the title of one of Ireland's Greenest Places. Advertisement The initiative, launched by The Irish Times in association with Electric Ireland, will see each nominated place judged on specific criteria. This will include its beneficial environmental impact, the level of ongoing collective engagement by the community, and evidence of behavioural change by people. To help the place of your choice be in with a chance of claiming the title of one of Ireland's Greenest Places, you must write a short submission of up to 300 words explaining why it is so special and the tangible contribution it makes to a greener environment. Photo: Julien Behal The chair of the judging panel, Irish Times features editor Mary Minihan, said the panel will be looking for places which offer a vision of a more sustainable future. Advertisement 'We chose place because it's a deliberately broad term. People can nominate a suburb, village, town or community such as a peninsula, island or other distinct area anywhere on the island," she said. "The key will be how it measures up against the criteria outlined above as well of course as care for nature and the local environment. 'Over the next four months our judges will draw up shortlists based on the submissions, visit the front-runners, choose winners in each category and eventually choose an overall winner. "We are looking forward so much to hearing from people from each of the 32 counties as soon as possible to help us identify Ireland's Greenest Places 2025.' Advertisement Climate change Former Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan, who is one of the judges, said Irish people care about climate change and are concered about its effects. He said one of the key objectives of the competition is to showcase the contributions people and communities are making to a greener Ireland. "We also know that place-based solutions deliver climate actions that really work because they are developed and underpinned by community ownership," he said. 'With this initiative we want to celebrate what's happening in so many locations around the country, share those learnings as widely as possible and encourage more people to get involved in making their community a better place to live now and into the future." Advertisement Electric Ireland's Lisa Browne said the company is proud to partner with The Irish Times as the sponsor of Ireland's Greenest Places. 'As a judge, I'm looking forward to seeing the wonderful stories come in from communities around Ireland and their journey to a more sustainable life," she said. "This partnership is the perfect fit with our strategy to empower customers to live an all-electric life and to help customers to see how big or small changes can make a real difference.' Joining Mary Minihan and Lisa Browne on the judging panel will be Irish Times environment editor Kevin O'Sullivan and senior features writer Rosita Boland. If you know a place in Ireland that deserves recognition for its contribution to a greener future, submit your nomination here .


Belfast Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Restaurant review: You can't lose at this Co Down gastropub where quantity and quality go hand in hand
The quality of a restaurant in Ulster used to be measured by the weight on the plate. In some more remote parts and in some towns where they should know better, this is still the case. Foreign visitors, particularly Italians, would report back in surveys how much they enjoyed their visit to Ireland but — mama mia! — those lunches and dinners, were these meant for wrestlers, heavyweight boxers and weight lifters? The sheer volumes of spuds, meat, vegetables and gravy — piled in a rough pyramid — provoked anxiety and depression in many of them because the thought of having to eat their way through all this was just too much. And yet, this pile-it-high approach was always intended as an expression of generosity and hospitality — a desire not to let your guests go hungry. I'm convinced it is a throwback to the Great Famine and the profound traumas caused by seeing so many die of starvation, which developed a fear in us of not having enough food and became a generational memory passed on to the present day. Irish mammies would put a priority on volume.


Press and Journal
4 days ago
- Press and Journal
Turriff field yields a 'treasure trove' for detectorist Cameron
He'd been pottering about with an old metal detector on his parents' farm near Turriff for years with indifferent results. But when Cameron Anderson's wife Emily gave him a fancy new digital detector last Christmas, it was a game-changer. In the past few months the fields have given up ancient coins, buttons, musket balls, even a Viking silver ingot. Exciting finds for Cameron, co-owner of Subsea Tooling Services UK Ltd. His primary intention is to use the metal detector to find out more about the history of the farm, in the family since the 1930s. One week he found 31 coins, including a hammered silver coin from 1563, a 1697 William III shilling, and a fascinating Irish gun metal coin made from melted canon in the 17th century. He's found many love tokens, which were coins bent in a certain way, including one dated 1708, from the reign of Queen Anne. There were also musketballs, evidence of military action, perhaps during the time of the Covenanters in the 17th century. Cameron said: 'There's a big dent in one as if it had definitely hit someone or something.' Handily, he even found a friend's missing Stanley knife. But then came what some archaeologists call the Holy Grail of finds— Cameron discovered nothing less than a Bronze Age axe head, some half a metre below what he describes as 'just an ordinary field'. The bronze axe head wasn't complete; in fact it looked as if it had been intentionally cut up as the back end was missing. None the less, the Turriff detectorist knew at once what it was. He had to sit down for a while to calm his pounding heart and process what had just happened before phoning Emily, who had left minutes beforehand to take the dog home, with the astonishing news. The next night, Cameron detected on, and at the other end of the 10 acre field, turned up what he thought was another small axe head. When he compared it to the first one he realised it matched the cut on the original axe head exactly, all but for another small missing piece. The challenge was on. Cameron simply had to find the rest of the axe head. It took a further two days, five miles of walking and some moments of frustration, but he did it- the missing section that he likened to 'Gandalf's hat' in shape was lying some 10m from the second find. Cameron immediately got in touch with Bruce Mann, Aberdeenshire Council's Historic Environment Officer. Bruce confirmed Turriff detectorist's find. He said: 'It's an early Bronze Age flat axehead, likely to be around 3,800 to 4,200 years old. 'It's undecorated, as is typical, and would have been originally hafted into an L-shaped piece of wood. 'These axes appear at the start of the introduction of metalwork into this part of the world and would have been prestigious items.' Processing what happened has been mind-boggling for Cameron. He said: 'Crazy to think that when this axe head was cast, the Egyptians were building their pyramids, Stonehenge was under construction and it had been lost to time for 1,300 years before King Tutankhamen was even born.' Cameron's axe head was part of a profound change in society at the time, the change between the old world of stone to the new one of metal. Bruce said: 'We are still learning about what those impacts were, and trying to answer basic questions such as just how much metalwork was available initially. 'Whether cast locally or traded from elsewhere, Cameron's axehead is a fascinating glimpse into life at the time.' During his detecting, Cameron has also turned up many fragments of bronze splatter from smelting, so was the site a possible Bronze Age tool factory? Bruce thinks not. He said: 'That is very unlikely as we don't have any other evidence for settlement near to the findspot. 'Direct evidence for metal-working on a site is very rare in the early Bronze Age.' Cameron thinks the axehead was deliberately broken, and Bruce agrees with him. He said: 'The axe more likely represents a deliberate offering to the gods or the ancestors and was deliberately broken as part of that 'sacrifice'.' Meanwhile, as the fields grow over for summer, Cameron has hung up his detector for the next few months. When the crops are in, he'll be back out in his trusty 1961 Land Rover, Pike. 'Pike goes everywhere with me on my metal detector adventures. He's like an old friend, always by my side.' A find as important as the axe head is classed as treasure trove, and must by law go to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh for recording. For the moment it's on temporary display in the window of Turriff museum, and once it's been processed by the Treasure Trove unit, Cameron hopes it will return permanently to the north-east, its home for four millennia. Bruce praised Cameron for his responsible attitude. 'Responsible metal detectorists have an important part to play in researching our past. 'I certainly welcome Mr Anderson's contribution to that research by reporting the axe. If there are others reading this who have found something I simply ask that they do the same. 'Every find helps tell Scotland's story.' The Turriff detectorist added: 'I just want to know more about the history of my parents' farm, and I never thought it would go back that far. 'But we can't rely on anything metal surviving for ever in the fields anymore, as pesticides can corrode and destroy metal.'