Happy St. Patrick's Day! Guinness Chocolate Cake

So.
J and I don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day with all things green and such.  Stew is not a real favourite with either of us, and we're not big on going out.  We'd both rather curl up with the cat in our own family room in front of the fire.  But when I saw this cake on Pinterest, I thought that I'd rather like to try it.
With my mother here, I'm making lots of fun things, and we had my uncle and his wife Friday night for dinner.  It was an excuse to make a cake.  Right before March 17th, why not make a cake with Irish ingredients?  And a Pinterest recipe to boot?
I present to you now Care's Kitchen' Chocolate Guinness Cake:

Ingredients:
1 cup stout or porter, such as Guinness
10 Tbsp butter
3/4 c unsweetened cocoa
1-1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c dark brown sugar
3/4 c sour cream
2 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 c flour
2-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4  tsp salt

Method:
1.  Grease a 9-inch springform pan and preheat oven to 350 F.
2.  In a saucepan, melt butter with the Guinness.  Wisk in cocoa and sugars until smooth.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3.  Beat sour cream, eggs and vanilla until very well combined.  Add the butter mixture and beat until well combined.
4.  In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients and mix together.  Add to batter, mixing just until combined.  Pour into the prepared pan and tap on the counter a couple of times to release any air bubbles in the batter.  bake for 50 minutes until done.  Let cool and run a knife around the outside of the cake to release the collar on the pan before leaving to cool completely before icing.

Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
8 Tbsp butter, softened
1-1/2 c icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Method:
1.  Cream butter and cheese until well combined.  Add icing sugar and vanilla until it reaches spreadable consistency.

From Care's Kitchen

So here's the one can of Guinness I'll buy this year.  I don't like beer, and J isn't a big fan of stout.  He drank the second half of the can so it wouldn't go to waste.  That would be my source for the recipe behind.  I think I manage to keep the laptop cleaner than my camera in the kitchen.

Here's the batter.  It was a lovely, rich colour.  It also had a strong smell of the beer.  But when we scraped the bowl after putting the cake in the oven, it was delicious.

Here's the cake baked.  It was one of the least domed cakes I'd ever made.  When I released the collar, it was lovely looking.  The cake is pretty dense, but very moist.

We all enjoyed the cake...and the icing.  The flavour was rich, but not overpowering chocolate.  The Guinness also shone through with a molasses like taste.  And it made enough for 12 servings.  Yum.