In Murder at an Irish Bakery, Carlene O’Connor transports readers to a reality baking competition in the lush Irish countryside. Sweeten the experience with your own Chocolate Stout Cake while you enjoy a luxurious afternoon getting lost in this fascinating new cozy mystery.
Carlene O’Connor’s adaptation of Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake recipe in The New York Times features a decadent cream cheese frosting flavored with Irish cream liqueur.
- 1 cup Irish dry stout beer*
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted Irish butter**, room temperature
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 cups superfine sugar
- ¾ cup sour cream, room temperature
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2½ teaspoons baking soda
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
- 2 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur*** (optional)
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with baking spray with flour and line bottom with parchment paper.
- In a large saucepan, stir together beer and butter over medium-low heat. When butter melts, remove from heat.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together cocoa powder and sugar. Add to hot beer mixture, whisking until well combined.
- In a large bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract until well combined.
- In another medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking soda. Add beer mixture to sour cream mixture, whisking until well combined. Gradually whisk in flour mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing with an offset spatula to level, if necessary.
- Bake until risen and firm, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on a wire rack.
- In another large bowl, beat together confectioners’ sugar and cream cheese with a mixer, beginning at low speed and gradually increasing speed, until smooth. Beat in liqueur, if using, until frosting is well combined and spreadable.
- Remove cake from pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Using a long, serrated bread knife, trim top of cake to level, if desired. Spread frosting on top of cake, making it look like a nice pint of stout beer with a frothy head.
**We used Kerrygold.
***We used Baileys. Substitute 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or more to taste, if desired.
Hailed as “queen of the cozy police procedural” (Publishers Weekly), USA Today bestselling author Carlene O’Connor returns to County Cork in Ireland’s lush countryside, where locals are simmering with excitement over the reality TV baking contest coming to town—until someone serves up a show-stopping murder that only Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan can solve.
Carlene O’Connor is the USA Today bestselling author of the acclaimed Irish Village Mysteries, the County Kerry Novels, and the Home to Ireland Mysteries. Born into a long line of Irish storytellers, her great-grandmother emigrated from Ireland filled with tales in 1897, and the stories have been flowing ever since. Of all the places she’s wandered across the pond, she fell most in love with a walled town in County Limerick and was inspired to create the town of Kilbane, County Cork, the setting of her Irish Village Mystery series. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and currently divides her time between Southern California and the Emerald Isle. Please visit her online at CarleneOConnor.net.
