A Day for the Saint, Shamrocks and Chocolate Cake



St. Patrick’s Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. When we were children, my sisters and I always wore green to escape a pinch. As I grew older, I enjoyed learning about the Irish heritage this day has come to embody.


It is, of course, a religious holiday – the feast day of Saint Patrick who brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century. Over the years, it became a day to celebrate Irish culture and history both in Ireland and in the “Irish diaspora” around the world. In America almost everyone, Irish or not, celebrates it not only as tribute to the “old country,” but as a memorial to the contribution of Irish immigrants to the rich national mosaic that is the United States.


Nigella Lawson, television personality, cookbook author, and kitchen diva, offers a tasty addition to a day best know in Boston, Chicago, New York, and Fayetteville’s Dickson Street for green beer. In an NPR Morning Edition interview she gives us a recipe for Guinness Chocolate Cake that puts green beer where it belongs, as a novelty best reserved for one day only. It inspired me to want to heat up the oven and drag out the mixing bowls. How about you?


(While it is worth the effort to get the real thing, if you can’t find Guinness you can try substituting another beer, a carbonated water, or soft drink in this recipe. Be warned, though, that it will change the flavor and possibly the texture of this cake.)