Dublin Stout Cake

I planned all along on doing this recipe for my next Random Recipe installment, but it happened to be quite fortuitous that my next Random Recipe Day ended up being the day before St. Patrick's Day! I wouldn't, however, strictly call this a St. Patrick's Day recipe, though it is as Irish as they come. I'd like to tell you a little bit about the cake before I post the recipe!

First of all, I need to wax nostalgic on cooking for a little while here. While I love the actual act of cooking --- the chopping, the measuring, the monitoring, etc. --- I also love everything that cooking represents, and everything it honors. One of my favorite recipes is my great-grandmother's Cheesecake recipe. She made it all the time when my mom was a little girl, and though she passed away when I was seven, I feel close to her each time I replicate it. Additionally, we almost all mark the seasons by which foods we eat. Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving for me without my Aunt Carol's Cranberry Jello Mold. In fact, even with all the plethora of foods at the table, each year I continue to tell myself that it's my favorite, the same way it was my favorite when I was in grade school. Fellow HHH member Meredith and I instituted what might become a yearly tradition this past Thanksgiving: she doubled a recipe and gave a batch of it to me for my Thanksgiving, and I did the same for her. The pumpkin roll she gave me was universally admired by all, so I look forward to next Thanksgiving when I get to participate in her Thanksgiving via one of my dishes and she gets a place at ours with her magnificent pumpkin roll!

And though it's very easy to think of foods representing Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am always pleasantly surprised when I remember the foods that remind me of early spring; that time at the beginning of March that tends to coincide with the snow melting, the days getting longer and the sun making more prolonged appearances. There are three main foods I think of when I think of this time of the year, and yes, some will be shocking: fish sandwiches, Shamrock Shakes and Dublin Stout Cake. Because my husband and I observe Lent and nearly always forget to plan for the first Friday of going meatless, we end up grabbing Fish Sandwiches from a nearby fast food place. Not exactly a fantastic meal, but for me, it tastes just like March. A former CDC co-worker and I used to eat lunch together and during March we would take turns buying Shamrock Shakes for each other. I remember sipping them in our CDC library, which has floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the outside. We'd be reading, talking, and watching the snow melt and the weather improve all while drinking a mint milkshake. Yes, kind of appalling that McDonald's can represent early spring to me, but there you go. The final food that reminds me of early spring is Dublin Stout Cake!

This recipe is courtesy of my dad, who I believe pulled it from a New York Times cookbook in the '70s or '80s. This cake is praised and admired wherever it goes. It was originally busted out when my sister was in third grade and needed to bring in an Irish dish to school to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. She and my dad made this, and her teacher, who was a nun born and raised in Ireland, said it was the best she'd ever had. You know your recipe is successful when a true Irish person loves it! As for what this is, exactly, well....it's not really a cake. Nor is it a soda bread. Soda bread tends to have more of a rye bread base, which I don't necessarily care for. In my family, we refer to this as "soda bread" just because it's easier and less pretentious than to say "Dublin Stout Cake." When you make this, you will be shocked at how dense it is. First, your batter will be enormously thick. Then, when slicing, each piece will seem remarkably thick and heavy. This is what's fantastic about the cake. It's somehow crunchy on the outside and bread-like on the inside, with lots of raisins and walnuts inside.

Carl and I had the opportunity to go to Ireland several years ago, and we fell in love with the country. I have never been to a more amazing place. That being said, I was also very shocked by Ireland's cuisine, which does not consist of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes, but instead features a lot of locally-grown and farm-fresh creations. I'll never forget eating a pasta gorgonzola on the seaside in Malahide, delightfully eating the best burger of my life in a pub in Dublin, or sitting down to one of many fabulous breakfasts in Galway or Cork. This recipe is akin to the type of thing we were served for breakfasts or we found in coffee shops. It is best slathered with cream cheese and eaten along a fantastically steaming cup of tea or coffee. When I recently got together with Meredith and Gabe in mid-February, we both remarked about how happy we were that March was fast approaching. It meant we could get together more often, and get together to do more outdoorsy, fresh-air things. As Meredith remarked, "Soon I feel like life will be on the upswing." That really stuck with me, because I feel like it perfectly encapsulates where we are in the year. So I have an alternate name for this cake, which, for me, is almost always eaten during the season when spring makes an appearance and all is right with the world:

Dublin Stout Cake
Or
Life on the Upswing Cake

1 cup (2 Sticks) butter
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
The zest of 1 lemon (I have used the zest of half an orange instead and it works well)
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp allspice
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups raisins or 1 cup each raisins and currants
1 cup chopped toasted walnuts (if you plan on making this without first toasting the walnuts, I certainly don't want to know about it. In fact, I am apt to give you the dark look of a woman scorned if we happen upon each other and I am made aware that these walnuts were not toasted! That's how vital it is to toast nuts before using them in almost any recipe, but especially in this one. Just an FYI. Carry on.)
3 tbsps Guinness Stout (the recipe calls for 3 tbsps but in the Livingston family we generally use about 6 tablespoons...your preference)

Preheat oven to 325. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan. Cream butter, sugar and zest until light and fluffy.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and allspice.

Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the eggs, beating well after each addition.

Stir in stout.

Fold in raisins and nuts and blend well.

Turn into pan and bake 1 hour.

Reduce heat to 300 and bake until cake tests done with a toothpick, about another hour.

Let cool completely before serving.

Serving suggestion: butter or cream cheese sweetened with orange juice or powdered sugar.