And the second variety of cake for the last ‘Concert at Cratfield’ is Chocolate Guinness Cake which is based on Delia Smith’s Chocolate Beer Cake in her Book of Cakes. I covered the cake with a chocolate glaze of melted chocolate, beer, and cream. The taste is very good, with coffee, mixed spice, and cinnamon  adding complexity to the beer and chocolate.

I am happy with the recipe, and the glaze has hardened, but the shape does not really show. Do I need a bundt tin with a more obvious shape? Or should I leave this cake uniced, with perhaps just a dusting of icing sugar?

There are two cakes because the first one stuck to the tin – I think I turned it upside down too soon – and so it has a rough chocolate and sour cream icing but you can see the texture – quite fine.

So where am I with this recipe? I like the recipe, but the shape is not sufficiently strongly defined, which means a new tin.  And perhaps it is a cake which can be served in two ways – with a glaze which hardens, and with a dusting of icing sugar.