Recipe: Auntie Vi Nish, Guinness cake.

Last week myself, Zoe, Lillie and Fynn visited Northern Ireland.

As always when we arrive we arranged our visit to East Belfast to see Auntie Vi, i find this lady an absolute insperation, her life stories are amazing and she has a heart of gold.

This time around myself and Auntie Vi got on to my favourite subject, food.

During the visit we talked about traditional cooking and how the food culture has evolved over the years, We also talked about the food Vi enjoys,the baking she does at home and the foods she loved during her childhood.

During the conversation i was looking at the recipes that Auntie Vi has built up over the years and i picked this one out, The recipe this time around is a Guinness cake, please give it a try and enjoy.


Ingredients

8 oz butter
8 oz soft brown sugar
4 eggs lightly beaten
10 ozs plain flour
2 level teaspoons mixed spice
16oz sultanas
4 oz mixed peel
4 oz walnuts chopped
8-12 tablespoons Guinness

Method

Cream butter and sugar together
Gradually add the eggs
Fold in the flour, spice mix and fruit
Add half the Guinness and mix to a soft consitency
Bake at 150c for one hour then reduce the heat to 100c for 1.5 hours
Remove from the oven and cool
Remove from the tin, prick the bottom of the cake and pour over the remaining Guinness
Store for one week in an air tight container before eating.

Recipe: Rich hot chocolate fondant

Serves six
For the fondant
250g of plain chocolate
250g of unsalted butter
Two eggs
200g of caster sugar
135g of plain flour
30g of cocoa powder

Method

Grease six ramekins with butter, dust them with some of the cocoa powder and chill them in the freezer for at least 10 minutes. Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water in a pan . Once it's all melted, gently mix in the butter.

Sieve the flour and remaining cocoa powder into a bowl. Whisk the eggs and sugar in another bowl until pale and fluffy. Then, using a metal spoon, rather than stir gently fold in the butter/cocoa powder mix. Spoon the mixture into the ramikns until each is 3/4 filled. Tap each to remove air bubbles, cover with cling film and chill for at least a couple of hours.

This can be done well in advance, as you can do the final cooking after you've finished your main course. Heat the oven to 200c, bake the ramekins for 10 to 12 minutes. Allow them to cool for a couple of minutes and then turn them out onto the serving plates. You could serve them with a chocolate sauce, cream or ice cream.