This Chocolate Guinness Cake is a rich, creamy dessert recipe infused with classic Irish stout. Try it this St. Patrick’s Day!
This recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cake was originally published here on Catz in March of 2013. We have remade it, and updated the post and photos. It’s still a St. Patrick’s Day favorite here in our home!
Few things are as patently Irish as a dark, cold Guinness. I, myself, am not a beer drinker. But I do love what the flavor of a beer or wine can do to a cake (or a batter for fish, or a soup…). Lots of reasons to cook with beer and wine, whether you drink it or not! I’ve made a Red Wine Chocolate Cake before and the flavor of the cake was incredible. So when I decided to make this Chocolate Guinness Cake, I was pretty sure the flavor would be out of this world, not to mention festive! For those of you cooking for kiddos (like me!), the alcohol bakes out, of course, so nothing to worry about there. The same is true for the vast majority of baked dessert recipes (with the exception of this wonderful tiramisu cake). 
Since cakes happen to be my favorite dessert and because I don’t make nearly enough of them, I decided that I needed to have this chocolate Guinness cake in my life. And I am so glad I did, because it doesn’t disappoint! The flavor of the beer peeks out of each chocolatey bite, while the cream cheese frosting tones down and smooths out the richness of the cake in a delightful way. Even Josh, who’s not a big cake person, loves this one because it isn’t too sweet, and it stays quite moist – a winning combination for cakes!
I don’t know about you, but I could get used to drinking my beer through desserts! And this chocolate Guinness cake is so easy to make – in fact, when we made it again to re-shoot the photos, Gracie made most of it herself (with a little help from Josh on beer and frosting…). So, make it for St. Patrick’s Day, for the birthday of someone who loves rich, chocolatey cakes, or just because you want a yummy treat!
Need other ideas for St. Patrick’s Day cooking? We’re working on getting some up for you in our recipe archive!
Chocolate Guinness Cake
Yield:
12
Prep Time:
25 minutes
Cook Time:
45 minutes
Total Time:
1 hour 10 minutes
This Chocolate Guinness Cake is a rich, creamy dessert recipe infused with classic Irish stout. Try it this St. Patrick's Day!
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup Guinness (or other dark, stout beer)
- 1/2 cup butter, cubed
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 2/3 cup sour cream
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
Frosting
- 1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Grease a 9 inch springform pan, and line the bottom with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat butter and beer until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. Combine the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla in a medium sized bowl; whisk in the beer mixture. Combine the flour and baking soda in a small bowl; whisk into beer mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove the sides of pan.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar and cream; beat until smooth.
- Remove the cake from the wire rack and place on cake stand and frost the cake.
- Refrigerate leftovers.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 437Total Fat: 16gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 72mgSodium: 254mgCarbohydrates: 68gFiber: 2gSugar: 48gProtein: 5g
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Chels/Catz in the Kitchen
Thursday 14th of March 2013
You should make it! The cream cheese frosting is to die for!
Claire Davis
Thursday 14th of March 2013
I just made a beef dish with Guinness, this cakes sounds like it would go perfect :)