Easy Guinness traybake with whiskey buttercream

Preparation

Perfect for St Patrick’s Day (17th March), this easy chocolatey traybake is made extra-rich and moist by the addition of Guinness and has a whiskey-flavoured buttercream to replicate the creamy top on a pint of stout.

1. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm baking tin. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4.
2. Dice the butter into a saucepan and melt over a medium heat. Take off the heat and break in the chocolate for richness, stirring until melted together. Next, sift in the cocoa powder and mix to a paste, followed by the sugar, stout and milk and then the eggs, until you have a smooth mixture.
3. Now sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and a good pinch of salt and whisk again. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin.
4. For the buttercream, first beat the butter until it is really soft and pale. Sift in the icing sugar in 3 batches for sweetness, whisking in after each addition, then beat in the whiskey (or milk if preferred) to give a soft, spreadable consistency (add a splash of boiling water if needed).
5. Lift the cooled cake out of the tin and spread and swirl the buttercream on top, to replicate the creamy top of a pint of Irish stout.

This recipe also works well with other types of stout or porter beer. Allow extra time for cooling the cake after baking and before buttercream is added.