Chocolate Guinness Cake

In my next few posts, I’m excited to share some recipes to get you in the mood for St. Patrick’s Day!

This Chocolate Guinness Cake is delicious! Guinness in particular makes a great addition to cake batter – we had Guinness cupcakes at our wedding and they disappeared quickly! The popular Irish beer is infused into the batter, to lend a hint of taste to the almost brownie-like consistency of the cake. Meanwhile, just a touch of Bailey’s Irish Cream adds flavor to the buttercream icing. The two pair perfectly together making for a very tasty treat. The cake itself isn’t overly sweet tasting despite the added sugar. I found that the muted sweetness of the cake paired itself well with a hot Irish coffee after dinner.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 cup Guinness beer
• 1 cup butter
• 2/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Icing:

• 8 ounces butter
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 1 – 4 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Add beer and butter to a saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat and thoroughly whisk in the cocoa powder. Set aside to cool (I put it in the fridge for a few minutes because I was short on time!). In a mixing bowl, combine eggs and sour cream. Add in the beer mixture, thoroughly mixing with an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pour the beer mixture into the dry ingredients, mixing again with your electric mixer. Pour the batter into two 9″ cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes.

Make your Bailey’s buttercream icing by combining the butter, powdered sugar, and Bailey’s (start with just one tablespoon, adding additional tablespoons as needed so your icing isn’t too thin). Use the electric mixer to combine thoroughly, blending for about 10 minutes. Wait until your cake has cooled completely before adding the icing.