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Guinness Chocolate Cake

This was a LARGE cake to make (for me)… it included many steps and actually several days.  (I do think making the cakes and frosting one day, then assembling the next day is a good approach).

However, this was – by far – the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made myself.  All credit for the recipe goes to Liz at Sugar Geek Show, so visit her site and show her some love.

I was endlessly looking for a decadent chocolate cake that included Guinness for St. Pattrick’s – and what I discovered here caught my attention so hard that I had eyes for nothing else after finding it.  The cake is moist with a very rich, dark chocolatey crumb that is almost savory thanks to the umami addition of the Guinness.  Guinness has long been an additive to spice and chocolate cakes, and for good reason.  Also, this cakes has the addition of espresso which deepens that chocolate flavor and mayonnaise that helps moisten the cake crumb.  Lastly, the uber rich chocolate ganache layer atop each cake just seals the deal – this is the basically the richest chocolate cake ever. period.

Naturally chocolate frosting could be the final chocolate blow to this cake – but maybe that would be too much.  Instead, the luxuriously creamy Irish cream flavored buttercream is perhaps the perfect respite from the density of this three-layer chocolate mass.  It is light and creamy, yet richly flavored thanks to the Bailey’s Irish Cream.  Jameson Whiskey is also in this buttercream, completing the Irish holy trinity in this St. Patty’s Day bake – BUT… to be honest… next time, I would leave the whiskey out.  It’s such a small amount (thankfully) that really only adds a scent of whiskey to your bite – however for me, it was a scent that was far too reminiscent of either a bar or frat house at closing time.  That added whiff of whiskey really didn’t do much for me, however it also didn’t detract from the glory of this cake, so you be the judge and try it out one way or the other and let me know what you think.

 

Surprisingly, I actually left out an additional layer of richness to this cake from the original recipe on Sugar Geek Show.  In the original recipe there is also a drizzled layer of homemade caramel sauce between each layer and on top of the cake.  So if you’re dying to add even more sweet richness to this chocolate cake, there’s always ways to do so!… but for me, the cake as I made here, was more than satisfying.

GUINNESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE IRISH CREAM & WHISKEY BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

 

CAKE INGREDIENTS

  • 14oz / 397g Irish Stout Beer (I used one draught can of Guinness.  This amount will leave a tiny bit left for you to drink)

  • 1 1/2 Tablespoon Espresso Powder

  • 2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

  • 4 Cups / 397g Cake Flour (use grams if possible – because in reality – the measurement in cups is 3.97 cups)

  • 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

  • 2 Teaspoons Baking soda

  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons Salt

  • 6oz / 170g Dutch Process Cocoa Powder

  • 10oz / 284g Unsalted Butter, room temp.

  • 2 1/4 Cups / 454g Granulated sugar

  • 4 Large Eggs, room temp.

  • 6oz / 170g Mayonnaise

  • 6oz / 170g Mini Chocolate Chips (dark, milk or semi-sweet chocolate – all good!)

CHOCOLATE GANACHE FILLING INGREDIENTS

  • 4.5oz / Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped

  • 8oz / 227g Sweetened Condensed Milk

  • 4oz / 113g Irish Cream (Bailey’s Irish Cream)

WHITE CHOCOLATE IRISH CREAM & WHISKEY BUTTERCREAM INGREDIENTS

  • 24oz / 680g White Chocolate, chopped (use bar or baker’s chocolate DO NOT USE white “chocolate” chips! see note below)

  • 4oz / 113g Irish Cream Liqueur (I used Bailey’s) 

  • 4oz / 113g Heavy Whipping Cream

  • 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

  • 1 Tablespoon Irish Whiskey (I used Jameson)

  • 1/4 Teaspoon Salt

  • 4oz Unsalted Butter, room temp.

 

 

Note on White Chocolate for Ganache (or white chocolate melting of any kind):
White Chocolate “Chips” are not chocolate at all!
If you buy what you think are “white chocolate chips”, you’ve actually bought “white baking chips”.  Technically, companies cannot call these chips chocolate because they actually contain no white chocolate at all!  True white chocolate is only cocoa butter and milk, without the dark chocolate solids.   White Baking Chips on the other hand actually do not contain cocoa butter and are made of a mixture of oils, milk fats and flavoring.  The idea is that the chip product will keep its form in the baking process while true white chocolate (being so high in cocoa butter) would lose all its chip identity as soon as its baked.
SO… (the punch line).. this nasty mix of oils and milk fat solids that are “white baking chips” does not melt down nicely, whatsoever.  It turns into a porridge-y, lumpy looking mass that will immediately horrify.  Turns out you really need the cocoa butter to do its magic and turn into luxurious ganache – so do yourself a favor by always checking your ingredient label and buy white chocolate in bar form for that cocoa butter.

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Prior to mixing

  • Preheat oven to 350° F / 177° C

  • Prepare 3, 8″ x 2″, round cake pans: spray or butter bottoms and sides, line bottoms of pan with circular parchment paper, spray or butter top of paper. 

  • Set butter, eggs and liquids outside of refrigerator to bring to room temperature, for optimum emulsification during mixing.

Make the Cake

  1. Whisk and combine the Irish Stout (Guinness), espresso powder and vanilla in a small bowl and set aside.

  2. Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl: cake flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda, set aside.

  3. Cream the butter and sugar: place butter in mixing bowl (for either stand mixer or hand mixer) and mix at medium speed until butter is smooth and shiny.  Gradually add the sugar, mixing at a medium speed for about 3-4 minutes.  The butter/sugar mixture should be fluffy and noticeably lighter in color.  If you’d like to add to your OCD, the geniuses over at King Aurthur Baking break down the importance of this very critical process, here.

  4. Add the eggs to the butter mixture.  Add each egg one at a time, fully incorporating before adding the next egg.

  5. Add the mayonnaise, mix until fully combined.

  6. Mix the Wet and Dry: NOTE: You’re making a large amount of cake dough (three layers worth, remember) – be sure to be patient and go slow and don’t freak out if flour mixture flies out of the top of a very full mixing bowl (it will).  Just try your best!

    • Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter cream mixture, mix to combine.

    • Add 1/3 of the wet ingredients to the mixture, mix to combine.

    • Repeat until fully mixed: don’t forget to stop the mixing every so often to scrape down the inside of the bowl.

  7.  Fold in the mini chocolate chips

  8. Evenly divide the cake batter amongst the three cake pans. Have fun getting that exact. (hint: a scale is your friend)

  9. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until wooden toothpick or chopstick comes out mostly clean (some crumbs are good)

    • It’s a good idea to rotate the cake pans in the oven during the baking, front to back and side to side, for even baking. (backs of the ovens are usually hotter)

  10. Once cakes are done, let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before popping out onto wire racks for complete cooling.  If you don’t have wire racks… they’ll completely cool in the pan – but it’ll just take a little longer (but seriously, buy some wire cooling racks).

  11. While cake is baking and cooling – you can make the Chocolate Ganache Filling and the White Chocolate Irish Creme & Whisky Buttercream.

Adding espresso powder to Guinness and Vanilla
Creaming the Butter and Sugar

Make the Chocolate Ganache and pour over the cakes

  1. Combine the sweetened condensed milk and Irish Cream completely and heat until just simmering. (This can be easily done on stove top or in the microwave with multiple bursts of 15-25 seconds)

  2. Pour the heated milk/Irish creme mixture over the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl, let rest for 5 minutes.

  3. Chocolate should be melted, whisk mixture until its smooth and shiny.

  4. Prepare the cakes for the Chocolate ganache:

    • Remove cakes from pan, line empty pans with cling film, place cakes back in pans.

    • Poke 3-5 holes in cakes with handle end of wood spoon.

  5.  Spread chocolate ganache equally over all three cakes, spreading around to fully cover the top of the cakes.

  6. Cover cakes with cling film and refrigerate or freeze until ganache is firm.

Make the White Chocolate Irish Cream & Whisky Buttercream Frosting

 

  1. Combine the heavy cream and Irish Cream completely and heat until just simmering. (This can be easily done on stove top or in the microwave with multiple bursts of 15-25 seconds)

  2. Pour the heated creme mixture over the chopped white chocolate in a medium bowl, let rest for 5 minutes to melt.

  3. Add the whiskey, butter and salt and whisk until it’s smooth and creamy

  4. Let the ganache mixture cool completely. I wrapped the top of the bowl in cling film and let sit in the fridge until i frosted the cake the next day (if you plan on frosting the cake in one day, just be sure the mixture is no warmer than room temperature before you proceed.

  5.  Once mixture has cooled to consistency of thick peanut butter, mix with hand mixer or stand mixer until light and smooth. 

    • Note: this is your “buttercream” frosting – so you should try to achieve the consistency you’d expect from a typical American buttercream that you would frost with via cooling and mixing (almost whipping).  You can cool the frosting more if it’s not set enough and mix again as you need.  However, like American buttercream I bet you could add either powder sugar (if too loose) or milk (if too stiff) to quickly modify the consistency as needed.  Keep in mind, the sweetness of this frosting is from the sweetened condensed milk – so the taste and consistency of the frosting is not quite as sweet and more creamy tasting than American buttercream – so adding powdered sugar would really amp up the sweetness – just be aware.

Assemble the Cake

  1. Remove cakes from the fridge, unwrap from cling film and identify your base layer – place it on your cake plate.

  2. Add approximately 3/4 – 1 1/2 cups of buttercream to the top and spread evenly with butter knife or offset spatula if you have one.

  3.  Repeat this process for the middle and top layer.

  4. Reserve enough frosting for desired amount on top and for covering the sides.

  5. At this point, I wrapped the cake and returned the refrigerator to stiffen up the newly assembled buttercream and cake tower (my buttercream was a bit soft)

  6. Remove from the refrigerator and finish the sides and tops to your desired level of coverage, including any decoration you may want.  I opted to keep my cake rather undecorated, and lightly frosted on the sides – simple and basic.  This paired down, more ‘naked’ look is my personal preference. If you need more frosting for decoration or thicker layering of frosting, you may need to make an additional half batch of the buttercream frosting.

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