How to Make Guinness Chocolate Cake - A Trusted Recipe

Try this recipe for Guinness chocolate cake if you'd like to celebrate being Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day or any day of the year. Keep it light and extra chocolatey with this simple recipe.

Guinness and chocolate are a match made in heaven. This delicious cake combines both exquisite flavors, with a white chocolate cream cheese topping. Yummy all the way!

Table of Contents

Moist Chocolate Cake

The key to a good chocolate Guinness cake is creating a batter that will remain moist when baked. The ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients is ever so important. This recipe is my tried and trusted version of this delicious Irish cake.

The batter is perfectly balanced for success every time. It's made using melted butter, rather than by creaming butter and sugar together.

I use cake flour to make this scrumptious cake with a rich chocolate flavor and a hint of Ireland's favorite stout. You can use Guinness, or if you can find Murphy's stout or O'Hara's stout, you can substitute either.

I like to cook with Guinness and have shared my Irish Guinness stew recipe before. I marinate steaks in the black stuff, and even add it to my shepherd's pie. It's also a key ingredient in Irish Christmas pudding.

Now this cake does not end up tasting like beer. Guinness has a very different taste to beer. It adds rich and somewhat spicy notes to this moist cake. Guinness is brewed from malted barley and this malting process gives this cake its distinctive taste.

A Pint of Plain

Some porter and chocolate cakes are topped with dark chocolate ganache, but I like how this cake is a shout out to a pint of plain when topped with cream cheese frosting.

A pint of plain is a nick name for a pint of Guinness. Here's a quick list of the many names for Guinness in Ireland:

• a pint of plain
• a stout
• a pint of porter
• yer only man
• a pint of gat
• the black stuff

Here's a little excerpt from the poem "The Workman's Friend" by Flann O'Brien, dedicated to the pint of porter, or Guinness.

It's safe to say that for this chocolate cake, a pint of plain is yer only man.

Ingredients For Guinness Chocolate Cake

Here's a list of ingredients needed for this cake. You'll find exact quantities in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

There you can toggle between US and Metric measurements, plus you'll find nutrition information including fat, carbohydtrate and protein content.

For the Cake Batter

• butter
• cocoa powder
• Guinness stout
• vanilla extract
• honey
• white sugar
• light brown sugar
• cake flour
• baking soda
• baking powder
• pinch of salt
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• sour cream

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• white chocolate chips
• butter at room temperature
• cream cheese
• powdered sugar - sifted
• heavy whipping cream

I use salted butter for this cake, simply because all of our butter was salted in Ireland when I was growing up. We always baked with salted butter.

You can replace this with unsalted butter if you're watching your sodium levels.

Some cooks like to add Baileys Irish cream to the frosting. I prefer not to mix the flavors of Guinness with the whiskey tones in the Irish cream liqueur. If you wish to experiment replace some of the heavy whipping cream with a little dash of Irish cream.

Dutch process cocoa powder is the type I recommend. It boasts a rich and intense chocolate flavor and adds a deeper, darker color to your batter. Remember we want this cake to resemble a pint of Guinness when it's finished.

Use medium or large eggs for this recipe. Extra large eggs will make the batter too runny.

Be sure to use a good vanilla extract rather than fake vanilla essence. The flavor of real vanilla takes cakes to the next level of excellence. I use at least two teaspoons of vanilla. It adds so much to this smoothly flavored cake.

Step by step Instructions for Chocolate Guinness Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F. It's very important to place this cake directly into a hot oven since heat promotes the cake rising process. Cake batter placed into a cold oven will never rise.

Next prepare your cake pan. Use a 9-inch cake tin with a removable base and quick release sides, sometimes called a springform pan.

Line the bottom of the pan with a disc of parchment paper and grease the sides.

To Make The Cake Batter

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Whisk in the dutch-process cocoa powder and Guinness, completely combining these wet ingredients.

Add the vanilla extract and honey, and whisk again. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Sift the cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and just a tiny pinch of salt into a large mixing bowl. No need for a teaspoon of salt, since we're using salted butter already.

If you don't have a sifter then simply whisk the flour and leavening agents together in a large bowl. I recommend using cake flour rather than all-purpose flour. This is the secret to a lighter, moister cake.

Add the white and brown sugars to the flour and mix to combine.

Add the eggs and sour cream to the melted butter mixture when cooled. Whisk to combine this egg mixture fully.

Make a well with the back of a spoon in the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients.

Fold the batter together using a wooden spoon or spatula.

There's no need for an electric mixer or stand mixer. A spoon is just as good or even better. There's less risk of over mixing the cake.

Do not overbeat the batter. If you batter your batter, you'll end up with a tough, dense cake.

I can still hear my mother saying, "don't batter the batter" every time I make a cake.

If you do need to use a hand held mixer keep it on a slow speed for mixing this chocolate cake batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Use a rubber spatula to completely clean the bowl and get all that glorious chocolate mixture into the pan. Don't waste a drop.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1 hour or until an inserted skewer or cake tester comes out completely clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Place the cake pan on a wire rack so that air can circulate beneath it to help with the cooling process.

To Make the Frosting

Our frosting is made using melted white chocolate, cream cheese and confectioners' sugar. It adds that white creamy top to our cake layers, so that our cake resembles a pint of Guinness.

Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl placed on top of a saucepan, half filled with boiling water. No need to use a very large saucepan. Just one that's big enough to hold your heat proof bowl.

The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Simmer the water over medium heat and the chocolate will slowly melt and blend.

When the chocolate has melted completely remove the bain marie from the heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Place the butter and cream cheese into the bowl of a mixer and beat until light and fluffy and fully combined.

Add half the sifted powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Add the remaining powdered sugar and beat until creamy and light.

Mix the melted white chocolate and whipping cream into the mixture and beat until the frosting is smooth and spreadable.

Use additional whipping cream to attain a spreadable consistency if needed.

To Assemble the Cake

Release the sides of the springform pan to release the cake. Turn it over onto a wire wrack and remove the bottom of the pan. You can then peel the parchment paper off the bottom.

Place the cooled cake right side up on a plate or a cake stand. Take care when transferring cakes to a platter. You don't want to crack your cake at the last step.

Spread the frosting over the top of the cake. Use an off-set knife to smooth the top of the frosting.

Do not frost the sides of the cake. We want to display the dark chocolate cake beneath the frosting, and make our cake look like a pint of Guinness. (Did I mention that before???? 🙂

Storage and Freezing

This cake freezes, once the frosting has not been added. Cool the cake completely, wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap, then place it in a freezer bag or a layer of aluminium foil.

It can be frozen for up to 3 months. When you're ready to eat your cake it can be thawed in 3 to 4 hours. Unwrap it and place it on a wire rack. Leave it at room temperature for upto 4 hours to defrost.

Simply whip the topping together at this point and add it to your cake.

The cake base without the icing can be stored in an airtight container for about 3 days. Once the icing is added it needs to be kept in the fridge since the cream in the frosting can spoil if kept at room temperature, even in an airtight container.

Remove the frosted cake from the fridge about an hour before serving to allow it to come to room temperature. It tastes best that way.

Recipe Card for Guinness Cake

Here's the recipe card which you can save and print.

You can choose whether to print it with or without pictures of each process step.

I hope you will love this cake as much as I do.

It's a wonderful dessert for any party or get together, and especially good for anytime you want to celebrate your Irish heritage.

This recipe can be your go to Saint Patrick's Day treat. Thanks for checking it out.

Happy baking with Guinness.