Guinness Chocolate Cake
Rich and fudgy Guinness Chocolate layer cake has the deepest dark chocolate flavour, filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and surrounded by Bailey’s Irish Cream-flavoured cream cheese frosting.
Thick and chewy, rich and nutty; Guinness stout beer is slightly hoppy but oh, so smooth. It partners perfectly with chocolate.
For the frosting, I made a simple cream cheese frosting and added some Bailey’s irish cream liqueur, continuing the boozy theme.
This cake is rich and moist. The stout beer adds a tangy acidity to the chocolate cake, offset by the sweet cream cheese frosting. Bittersweet chocolate ganache makes the perfect filling between the cake layers.
Does Guinness Chocolate Cake taste like beer?
It does not! It tastes like a rich, chocolate cake.
This recipe makes a 2 – 9″ cake layers, or 24 cupcakes. Double it, as I did, for 4 – 9″ cake layers. I made 3 layers, and used the rest of the batter for cupcakes.
Guinness Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- 2 cake pans 9"
- parchment paper
- stand mixer with paddle & whisk attachments
- food processor
Ingredients
Guinness Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups Guinness stout beer most of a 440ml can
Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache
- 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate
- 1 2/3 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 3 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream
Instructions
Guinness Chocolate Cake
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 – 9″ cake pans. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add one egg, beat until combined. Add second egg and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add sour cream, beat until combined. Scrape sides of mixing bowl after each addition.
- With mixer running on slow speed, slowly pour in Guinness and mix until combined. It might look a little curdled or separated, but that’s ok at this point.
- Slowly add flour mixture, stirring until just combined. Spoon batter into prepared cake pans.
- Bake at 350°F for about 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into centre of cake comes out clean. Let cool on wire racks, then remove cake from pans. Wrap cake layers in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to assemble.
Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache
- Heat cream in a small saucepan on the stove until it reaches the boiling point, but don’t let it boil. Remove from heat.
- Using a food processor, chop chocolate into very fine crumbs.
- With processor running, slowly add hot cream through the feed tube, and process another 30 seconds until chocolate is completely melted.
- Pour chocolate/cream mixture into a bowl, and add butter, stirring until melted.
- Refrigerate until thickened.
- When ready to use ganache as a cake filling, remove from refrigerator and beat ganache, using the whisk attachment, until fluffy and lighter in colour. Depending on how cold the ganache is, this could take a few minutes.
Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, cream cheese and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Slowly add icing sugar and beat until fluffy.
- Add Bailey’s and stir until combined. If the frosting is too soft to use at first, refrigerate it for 15 minutes or so.
Assemble the Cake
- Place one cake layer on a decorative cake plate. Spoon on 1 cup of beaten ganache and spread until covered. (You will have left-over ganache)
- Add second layer. Cover top layer with 1 cup of cream cheese frosting, spreading evenly to sides.
- Cover sides with remaining cream cheese frosting. Make decorative swirls if you like.
- Sift a little cocoa over the top for decoration.