Try Guinness Chocolate Cake! Your Guests Will Marvel At This Unique Irish Expression!

If you love chocolate (and really, who doesn’t?) you’ll find this Guinness chocolate cake recipe to be a delectable mouthwatering dessert---

and late night snack---

oh yes, and  for breakfast...

or morning break... or lunch .... you get the idea!

It’s not too sweet, so it tricks you into eating more. It has the tang of everyone’s favorite Irish beer.

To make it even more delectable---and Irish---we like to top it with a creamy frosting with a dash of Bailey’s in it. 

The light creamy frosting is quite good and you can decorate the top of the cake to look like the foamy head on a glass of Guinness, something you can’t do with chocolate frosting.

One rule to remember when cooking with Guinness or Bailey’s. You need to have double the amount called for in the recipe.

The rule is always one cup for the cake and one for the cook!

Guinness Chocolate Cake: Ingredients

• 2 cups of Guinness (Make that four cups, so you have a couple for yourself while baking—it’s a hot task and you need the extra liquid.)

• 1 ½ cups unsweetened cocoa powder—or you can use unsweetened baking chocolate; just reduce the butter by a pat.

• 2 cups of unsalted butter—it’s a pound of butter or four sticks

• 4 cups of sugar

• 4 cups of flour

• 1 tbsp baking soda

• 4 large eggs

• 1 ½ tsp salt

• 1 1/3 cups sour cream

Guinness Chocolate Cake: Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Grease bottom and sides of three 8-inch cake pans that are at least 2 inches high. You can line it with parchment or dust it with coco for even more flavor. If you line it, grease the top of the paper. A good substitute for parchment is butcher or mailing paper if you don’t have baking parchment available. We Irish know how to “make-do.”

3. Put the 2 cups of butter and 2 cups of Guinness into a large pan, heating it over medium heat. Whisk in the cocoa powder or baking chocolate, whichever you chose to use. Set the pan aside to cool slightly.

4. Mix the other dry ingredients together, flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

5. In a separate and larger bowl, beat the sour cream and eggs. You’ll want to use an electric mixer for this step. Add the Guinness mixture and continue to beat until blended.

6. Turn the mixer onto low and slowly add the flour mixed with the other dry ingredients. You may need to use a rubber spatula to insure all the ingredients combine. Don’t over mix, however.

7. Divide the mixture evenly between the three pans.

8. Bake for approximately 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

9. Rest the cakes on racks to cool slightly. This step only takes about ten minutes, but if you don’t do it, the cake often breaks into pieces when you turn it out onto the rack to finish cooling. Turn out the cakes onto racks to completely cool.

Guinness Chocolate Cake: 
Don't Forget the Bailey's Frosting!

Ingredients:

Two cups of softened butter—It’s one pound or four sticks of butter if you prefer

8 cups of sifted confectioner’s sugar

6 Tbsp of Bailey’s Irish Cream (You can use other brands and it tastes just as good. I simply have Bailey’s as one of my staples.)

Frosting Directions

1. Beat the butter until it’s light yellow and fluffy. Add the Bailey’s and the confectioner’s sugar and continue beating.

2. You may have to beat for a while until it returns to the fluffy state. When it does, as long as the cakes are cool, you can start frosting them.

3. Here’s the tricky part, dividing the frosting. I always end up making a second half batch because I use too much between layers. You’ll want to divide it in fourths, not thirds. The top layer gets twice as much so you can make it look like a foamy head on a beer.

A Special Tip

Put the frosting between the cake layers and on the top of it, but not on the sides.

If you want, you can make chocolate curls to put on top, but I think it takes away from the image of a frothy headed beer.

You don’t have to have a special occasion to make this Guinness chocolate cake. It’s good any time, whether you’re celebrating a special day or just want to make your day special.

The Guinness and the Irish Cream make it a true Irish dessert the whole family will love.

Yummy!  Where Can I Find More?

At Irish Expressions, our our goal is simple: to provide you with a unique Irish experience, on demand, wherever you are in the world.

If you have enjoyed our section on Irish Food Recipes, you have probably been exposed to many of the most delicious flavors that Ireland has to offer!

Will that entice you to visit Ireland - or to return if you have already been? 

We hope so!  

But even if that is not possible, you can still enjoy the magic of Ireland in these pages.  Check out the links at the top of the page for simple instructions on how to explore Irish landmarks, enjoy Irish food, practice Irish customs, and much more!

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