Guinness Chocolate Cake (St Patrick’s Day Cake Recipe)
Guinness chocolate cake is perfect for St Patrick’s Day, because it’s made to look just like a freshly poured pint of Guinness. It’s also one of the best chocolate cakes you’ll ever have!
After the success of my Irish whiskey cake for St Patrick’s Day last year, I decided to add this beautiful Guinness chocolate cake for those of you who love to celebrate with sweets as well as tipple! I think you’ll be swooning over this cake!
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Here’s the Irish whiskey cake if you’re interested: she’s a bit of a stunner. 🍀
Back to the Guinness chocolate cake, though. What this cake lacks in visual appeal (not quite so stunning as the whiskey cake) is more than made up for in taste and its rich, dense texture! Another advantage is that this cake is very easy to make and decorate. I am so delighted to share this recipe with you because I truly feel this is one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever made, and I have made a few!
Does Guinness Cake Contain Alcohol?
Guinness chocolate cake is made with the stout, but you won’t taste the alcohol. I’m no food scientist, so I can’t say whether all of the alcohol is gone by the time it comes out of the oven, but I would absolutely feel comfortable having my children eat this cake (if they’re under 21). (A chocolate Guinness cake you can buy states the alcohol content is less than one half percent (.5 %) by volume, if that helps.)
NOTE: IF YOU DON’T DRINK, OR LIKE GUINNESS, YOU WILL STILL LOVE THIS CAKE!
I do not like any beer, stout or ale, and I adore this cake (and my mother feels the same)! Not only is the texture of this stout cake just fabulous, but it’s not very sweet, thanks to the Guinness. However, the sweet cream cheese frosting is the perfect balance to the flavor of the very dark chocolate cake.
What is Guinness Cake Made of?
This Guinness cake has a chocolate component, so instead of only using Guinness and cocoa, in addition to the normal cake ingredients, I’ve added chocolate, which gives this cake an extra rich flavor! It’s topped with a butter and cream cheese frosting that complements it stupendously!
If you’ve tried one of “my” spectacular muffin recipes which began with this perfect plum muffin recipe, you’ll know that they are actually from Waitrose, a British supermarket that I love. Well, I’ve adapted this Guinness chocolate cake recipe via Waitrose, so I am thinking I need to start trying all of their recipes!
What is the Perfect Cake for St Patrick’s Day?
This Guinness chocolate cake is just so perfect for St Patrick’s day because it’s not just made with Guinness, but it’s made to look like a perfectly poured Guinness!
Please don’t reserve this cake for one day of the year because it’s truly just a delicious chocolate cake. If you aren’t trying to make it look like a poured Guinness with a foamy head, you can put half the frosting inside the cake (slice it in half). And it’s the best ending to a meal of Irish bangers and mash!
You can even cover the entire cake with the frosting instead of just putting it on top. Let’s get baking so you can cut into your own delicious cake and pour yourself a Guinness!
Guinness Chocolate Cake
Slightly adapted from a Waitrose recipe Serves 10
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Ingredients for Cake
- butter
- chocolate
- Guinness
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- sugar
- eggs
- vanilla
- buttermilk
- all purpose/plain flour
- baking powder
- salt
Ingredients for Frosting
- cream cheese
- butter
- vanilla extract
- powdered/confectioner’s sugar
Special equipment: 8″ springform pan and serrated bread knife
Oven temperature: 335℉ (170℃) Between 325℉ and 350℉ if you don’t have a digital oven. Prepare the baking pan by buttering and dusting with flour.
Directions for the Guinness Chocolate Cake Batter
Put the butter into medium sized pan over low heat along with the chocolate and stir until almost melted. Add the Guinness, stirring to combine until smooth.
Remove from heat and whisk in the unsweetened cocoa powder and sugar.
In a large glass measuring jug or bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk together then add to the Guinness and chocolate mixture in the pan.
Sift the flour and baking powder together into a large bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the Guinness chocolate mixture and blend with the paddle attachment at low speed. Stop the mixer to clean the sides of the bowl with a spatula so the mixture is blended evenly. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl as the chocolate mixture drops to the bottom when mixing.
Pour the mixture into the springform pan and bake for about an hour or more (mine took about 1 hr 10 mins) or until the a cake tester comes out clean.
WHILE THE CAKE IS BAKING, MAKE THE FROSTING (RECIPE BELOW).
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before removing the side and bottom. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
When cool, slice the domed top off of the Guinness chocolate cake with a serrated knife so that you have a flat surface to work on.
Directions for the Frosting
Beat the cream cheese until it’s soft, then add the butter and continue to beat until well combined. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat at a high speed until light, fluffy and smooth.
Decorate the Guinness Chocolate Cake
Put the cake on a serving or cake plate and top with all of the frosting. Try to make the frosting level across the cake, as the head of foam on a Guinness would appear.
Ten slices from this cake may be a lot per serving, so feel free to cut smaller slices to serve more guests.
If you have some clover growing in your yard, pop some on the plate for another Irish touch!
Here’s another similar recipe: Guinness Dark Chocolate Pudding Cakes with Caramel Sauce
USE GOOD QUALITY INGREDIENTS FOR BEST RESULTS – IT MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE!
Guinness Chocolate Cake (St Patrick's Day Cake Recipe)
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Cake:
- 2 sticks butter (good quality, grass-fed)
- ⅓ cup dark chocolate chips or semisweet chips
- 8 oz Guinness
- ¾ cup plus 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (like Barry)
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 5 oz buttermilk
- 2 ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 1 stick butter at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Special equipment: 8" springform pan and serrated bread knife
- Oven temperature: 335℉ (170℃) Between 325℉ and 350℉ if you don't have a digital oven. Grease and flour the baking pan.
Directions for the Cake Batter
- Put the butter into medium sized pan over low heat along with the chocolate and stir until almost melted. Add the Guinness, stirring to combine until smooth.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the unsweetened cocoa powder and sugar.
- In a large glass measuring jug or bowl, whisk the eggs, vanilla and buttermilk together, then add to the Guinness and chocolate mixture in the pan.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together into a large bowl of a stand mixer. Pour in the Guinness chocolate mixture and blend with the paddle attachment at low speed. Stop the mixer to clean the sides of the bowl with a spatula so the mixture is blended evenly. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl as the chocolate mixture drops to the bottom when mixing.
- Pour the mixture into the springform pan and bake for about an hour or more (mine took about 1 hr 10 mins) or until the a cake tester comes out clean. WHILE THE CAKE IS BAKING, MAKE THE FROSTING (RECIPE BELOW).
- Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 30 minutes before removing the side and bottom. Place on a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
- When cool, slice the domed top off of the Guinness chocolate cake with a serrated knife so that you have a flat surface to work on.
Directions for the Frosting:
- Beat the cream cheese until it's soft, then add the butter and continue to beat until well combined.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and beat at a high speed until light, fluffy and smooth.
Decorate the Guinness Chocolate Cake:
- Put the cake on a serving or cake plate and top with all of the frosting.
- Try to make the frosting level across the cake, as the head of foam on a Guinness would appear.
Notes
- This cake freezes well. Just be sure to wrap it well so it doesn't dry out in the freezer.
Nutrition
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Looking forward to giving this cake a go especially since it has been so highly approved by another Lidia :) I would love to try the thick hot chocolate, too!
Hi, just delivered my cake as a 10 year anniversary with friends from 2013 on 3/17. I joke 13 was my lucky number that year. I didn’t have Guinness but did have a local chocolate stout. Used that. I generally half most frostings because I think they are overdone. This one I left as is. I felt the amount was needed for the right look. The cake was a huge hit. Thanks for a great recipe. I think the density and high chocolate cake balances well with the tall frosting. Everyone loved that look and idea. Thanks!
Thanks for this recipe. Would swiss meringue butter cream work as a frosting rather than the cream cheese frosting?
You can top with any other frosting as long as it’s still an off-white color, Christine. I think it would be delicious, as well! Let me know what you think.
I am not USUALLY a fan of thick frosting but this has me salivating, Christina! I love this cake recipe and Lidia’s comment makes me want to make it – not too sweet! The key! I love Cacao Barry – it is the best. I got through a kilo every few weeks, as I drink cocoa every morning.
Lidia is my mother, she loved it so much she wanted to leave a comment herself! Haha!
I just had a piece of this Guinness chocolate cake, I have to say it’s one of the most delicious cake I ever had, very moist, not too sweet, just great!
Gorgeous! I have to imagine the Guinness and chocolate combination is fabulous. Such depth of flavor. And the frosting sounds incredibly rich. I love how you’ve slathered it on nice and thick… I may be developing a sweet tooth in my old age!
I’m sure you’d love it, Frank!
What is guinness
Sorry Teresa, it’s a dark stout beer from Ireland, very famous. It’s what you see in the glass behind the cake.