I wish I had taken more pictures during the process but I was also busy making orange caraway Irish soda bread, corned beef, cabbage and mashed potatoes. :)
Oh, and I also made Irish cream whipped cream for an added bonus... Yum!
Cake:
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 small box chocolate instant pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup stout (a dark beer, do not substitute)
1/4 cup water
Mix all ingredients together for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Grease and sugar/flour your bundt cake pan, size of your choice. Fill with cake batter.
Bake 20 minutes to 1 hour, depending on size of pan, or until pick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove to wire rack and let cook 10-20 minutes before inverting onto rack to cool.
Make glaze while cake cools in pan.
Glaze:
1/4 pound butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 - 1/2 spiced rum
Melt butter in sauce pan; stir in the water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Prick cake top. Drizzle and smooth prepared glaze evenly over top and sides, allowing cake to absorb glaze. You don't have to use it all. I never do.
Place a large baking pan or parchment paper under the wire rack to catch the drips. There are a LOT!
Then let the glazed cake cool completely.
Ganache:
3.5 oz heavy whipping cream
1 Tablespoon Irish whiskey
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Place chocolate chips in small bowl.
Heat heavy cream until it JUST comes to a boil. Remove from heat and pour right over chocolate chips. Stir until melted and smooth. Stir in whiskey and mix well.
Chill the ganache until it is thick enough to pipe through a bag.
Fill a zipper bag with the ganache. Cut off a very small tip of one corner. Pipe the chocolate over the cake.
Chill cake to set genache.
This is the recipe I used for the Irish Cream whipped cream. The only thing I did differently was to add a bit of Instant Clear Gel to my sugar as a stabilizer.
