In recent years, I have become fond of the camaraderie I find in a local pub at day’s end chatting with friends over a favorite drink.

St. Patrick’s Day, however, is one holiday I prefer to observe, not with green beer and shenanigans, but at home with a delicious Irish-themed dinner. I heartily endorse as a motto, “One of the most important things I can do while on this planet is to honor those I love through celebration.” A thoughtfully planned feast for the eye and belly is a generous way to show that love.

Though some favor traditional corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day, I like to make something lighter to highlight the fresh vegetables, rich dairy, bountiful seafood and flavorful farm-raised meats for which Ireland (and Maine) is renowned. I might serve roasted wild salmon with grilled lemons and fresh dill; a big bowl of colcannon (potatoes mashed with silky, long-simmered cabbage and onions, with pools of butter and lots of bright green chopped scallions); a pan of slivered parsnips and carrots; and perhaps snap peas, green beans or asparagus for a dish reminiscent of the Irish flag. It adds up to an easy, appealing supper.

My favorite Chocolate Stout Cake is the emerald in the crown on St. Patrick’s Day. I owned and operated a bakery for several decades, and this cake is still one of the best (and easiest) I have ever made or tasted, plus it’s endlessly adaptable. The original recipe came from Now You’re Cooking, A Cook’s Emporium store in Bath. Holiday or no, you should make it.

You don’t need a mixer, and you can just about make it in one bowl. It is moist, high-rising and has a delectable crumb. It’s deeply chocolatey but not too sweet or rich. A slice of the cake goes very nicely with homemade Irish coffee, preferably served in clear glass mugs. Stir in a sugar cube, add a few tablespoons of Irish whiskey and top with a pillow of softly whipped cream. The dark coffee and creamy white cloud looks like a freshly pulled draft Guinness pint.

I was out of eggs the first time I ever made this cake, if you can imagine, so I substituted 1/2 cup of applesauce! That is neither here nor there, except to say that the recipe is very forgiving, and my friend who is allergic to eggs was thrilled. I’d planned to make a ganache to pour over the top. But in the end, I found it unnecessary to gild this lily.

Instead, that first time, and ever since, too, I serve it with a scoop of best quality vanilla ice cream – though consider mint chocolate chip or pistachio for a touch o’ green. Whipped cream with a bit of Jameson’s or Bailey’s Irish Cream would be delicious, too, although redundant if you make the Irish coffee. Which you should.

Enjoy your cake while contemplating this traditional Irish blessing:

“May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures.
May all life’s passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!”

CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE

Adapted from Now You’re Cooking, A Cook’s Emporium.

NOTES: Since you are melting the butter, not creaming it, you could substitute oil.

The cake won’t taste like beer; instead, the stout adds a rich, dark, slightly bitter note, and the fizz helps the cake rise high. Teetotalers can substitute coffee, juice, or probably just water. I would not use milk, as its proteins dull the chocolate flavor. One cup stout is two-thirds of a (12-ounce) bottle or can, leaving just enough for the cook to enjoy while the cake is baking for a wee tipple, as journalist/professor Michael Pollan says, of that “warm, suffusing glow of alcohol.”

At the bakery, we always used cake flour to make the cake, but all-purpose flour is perfectly fine. We measured the ingredients by weight, not volume, but if you use the spoon-and-level method, you’ll be fine.

INGREDIENTS
10 tablespoons butter (1 stick + 2 tablespoons)
1 cup Guinness stout
2 eggs
3⁄4 cup sour cream or yogurt (try soy or coconut yogurt if you are dairy free)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups sugar (I almost always reduce the sugar in recipes at least a little, to great effect.)
3⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 to 1 cup mini semi-sweet chips or nuts (I use 2 bars of Reny’s dark chocolate, chopped)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put a rack in the center of the oven. Grease a 9×3-inch springform pan or a 9-inch square brownie pan and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. After it has melted, continue to cook and swirl, watching carefully, until the butter solids are brown and smell nutty but not burnt. (Congratulations! You’ve just made brown butter). Stir in the stout and set the mixture aside to cool.

Beat the 2 eggs in a largish bowl. Add the sour cream and vanilla, stir well. Sift together the sugar and cocoa over the egg mixture and mix all together. Stir in the cooled butter/stout mixture.

Sift the flour with the baking soda and salt. Add to the batter and mix until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips or nuts, if you’re using them.

Pour the batter into the baking pan you’ve prepared. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or nearly so.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto serving plate a green one, if possible. When the cake is fully cool, sift a little confectioner’s sugar over the top.

MEET THE COOK, Carolyn Stephens

After a long career in food service, I am a happy home cook living in Portland. I usually cook for myself, but I love nothing more than cooking for family and friends.

I am a mom, a gardener, a writer, a widow. I am very frugal, but also love to treat myself and others with glorious local vegetables, meats, wines and flowers. I have a small vegetable, fruit and herb garden and a large flower garden. I compost, make stock, cook from scratch, use everything. Imaginative leftovers are a specialty and a source of great pride and satisfaction. I am working on a memoir. I maintain the blog Through A Widow’s Eyes. My work has been published in “The Widow’s Handbook,” The Mainer (Bollard), LitArt, Maine Public and others.

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