Happy St. Patrick’s Day from your Galley Pirates!  We hope you enjoyed yesterday’s lamb stew as much as we did.  Our guests aboard included two teenagers with whose eating habits I was unfamiliar, and I was concerned they might suffer through the stew only upon orders from their parents, so I decided a consolation prize was in order.  And because adding Guinness to anything makes it holiday-appropriate (and the booze would burn off in baking), Stout Chocolate Bundt Cakes it was.

By the way, meet Eddy’s best friend Guinness, without whom any St. Patrick’s Day post would be unworthy of Galley Pirates.  We love Guinness…he offered to taste-test both the lamb stew AND the bundt cakes…good little Sous Chef.  Apologies for the non-boat setting of the picture; Guinness DOES NOT DO BOATS other than to gaze at them from a safe distance ashore.

Irish Cream-Glazed Mini-Chocolate Stout Bundt Cakes

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
1 bottle stout beer, i.e. Guinness
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1-1/2 cups confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
2-3 tablespoons Irish Cream (i.e. Baileys) OR 2-3 tablespoons milk and 1/2 teaspoon Irish Cream-flavoring

Note: the glaze will not be heated, so if you are sensitive to having alcohol in your menu, the simulated version is a good choice.

Preheat your galley oven to 350 degrees and spray-oil your mini-bundt cake pan (or you can use a muffin tin and make regular cupcakes).  This wonderfully-nonstick pan makes six cakes of about 3″ diameter — a healthy single-serving size!  Well, this pan DID make six … that pan didn’t fit in my galley oven, so Captain Peter got his hack saw out and turned it into a pan that makes four and another that makes two, which is a bit rough-hewn, but works.  This recipe, by the way, makes about 18, so I was baking for a while to get them all through my little oven!  Next time, I might cut the recipe in half.

In a good-sized bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients (cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt).

Melt the butter in a smaller bowl — a metal bowl set on top of the preheating oven did it for me!

Add the Guinness and mix well.  You might bring the stout to room temperature first — I did not (it was straight out of the icebox) and the butter coagulated in the cold beer and made a really ugly concoction.  It baked up deliciously, so all well, but still looks pretty unappealing at this stage!

Beat in the three eggs, vanilla, and sour cream until well combined.  I was using my old-fashioned hand-crank egg beaters and this took a bit of finesse to keep things from frothing out of control!

Mix the wet into the dry ingredients until combined.  I didn’t stress too much about getting small lumps out, and things came out great.

Fill the cups about 2/3 to 3/4 full and pop in the oven for about 22-25 minutes, or until springy and a knife point comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool in the pan for a good 5-10 minutes, then thump the pan down fairly firmly (still right-side up as it came out of the oven) on the counter to help loosen the cakes.  Invert the pan over a cutting board or serving tray to release the cakes.  If you use a non-stick pan, this should be fairly easy.  Let them cool a while out of the pan (on a rack even better) before glazing, if you can….

Mix the powdered sugar and real or simulated Irish Cream together with a fork and drizzle over the cakes.  If you’ve cooled them thoroughly, it will stay a visible glaze with attractive drizzling.  If, like us, you couldn’t wait and glazed them while still warm, the glaze will melt down into the cake, which is delicious, but less fancy!   Now grab a fork and enjoy the holiday, friends.  Lamb stew and a boozy cake … this calls for a nap!  (Luckily, Guinness the dog is very helpful with those too.)

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Irish Cream-Glazed Mini-Chocolate Stout Bundt Cakes

Course: Dessert

Vessel Name: Irish

Servings: 18 cakes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter
• 1 bottle stout beer, like Guinness
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1-1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons Irish Cream, like Baileys OR milk and Irish Cream artificial flavoring

Instructions

• Mix first five, dry ingredients in a large bowl.
• Melt butter.  Add beer and combine well.  Beat in eggs, vanilla, and sour cream until well mixed.  Stir into dry ingredients.
• Fill miniature (3" diameter) greased bundt cake pan or muffin cups 2/3 to 3/4 full.  Bake 22-25 minutes at 350 degrees, until springy and a knife point comes out clean.
• Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then invert onto a rack and cool an additional 10-15 minutes.
• Whisk Irish Cream into confectioner's sugar with a fork and drizzle over cooled cakes.