A dark, moist single-layer chocolate cake made with Guinness stout, crowned with a thick white cream-cheese frosting to mimic a pint of stout. An Irish pub and St. Patrick's Day favorite.
The marriage of stout and chocolate is an Irish baking trick that gained worldwide fame, the dark, roasted, faintly coffee-like flavor of Guinness deepening the cocoa and keeping the crumb damp for days. Iced in pale cream cheese, the finished cake is a playful nod to a freshly poured pint with its creamy head. Adopted wholeheartedly by Irish restaurateurs and pub kitchens, it has become a fixture of St. Patrick's Day tables.
Dense, dark and intensely moist, with a deep bittersweet cocoa flavor rounded by the stout's malty, roasted edge. The tangy cream-cheese top cuts the richness like the head on a pint cuts the bitterness below. It's grown-up chocolate cake with a quiet Irish swagger.
Stout's acidity and dark malt amplify chocolate's roasted notes while its sugars and liquid keep the crumb tender and long-lasting. Baking soda reacts with the acidic beer and sour cream to leaven the dense batter.
Variations
Baileys or Irish-cream buttercream instead of cream cheese, baked as cupcakes, with a chocolate ganache top, layered as a two-tier cake
On the Palate
Where Guinness Chocolate Cake sits in the Irish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 10
How it's made
8 steps · 20 min
- 15 min
Gently heat the Guinness with butter until the butter melts, then remove from the heat.
Watch outHeat the stout and butter only until the butter just melts — don't let it boil; too hot and it'll scramble the eggs when they go in later.
- 23 min
Whisk in cocoa powder and sugar until smooth and glossy.
- 33 min
Beat in eggs and sour cream until fully combined.
- 43 min
Fold in the flour and baking soda just until no streaks remain.
Watch outFold in the flour just until the streaks vanish — stop the second it's uniform, because overmixing develops gluten and bakes up tough and dense.
- 52 min
Pour the thin batter into a lined springform tin.
- 645 min
Bake at 180C until a skewer comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
Watch outTest with a skewer in the center — it should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter; pull it a touch early since the cake keeps setting as it cools.
- 760 min
Cool the cake completely in the tin so it stays moist.
- 86 min
Beat cream cheese with icing sugar and a little cream, then swirl it over the top like a frothy head.
