This Chocolate Guinness cake is everything that you would like a cake to be. It is a dark chocolate cake that is not overly sweet. The addition of the Guinness beer makes the cake very moist and helps give the cake a rich chocolate flavor. The sweetness of cream cheese icing works nicely with this rich dense cake. I won’t mention how many pieces I ate!
For those of you who do not drink beer, Guinness is a dark stout beer. It is the color of a cup of black coffee. It is an Irish beer and it is very popular around this time of year for all of the St. Patrick’s day parties. It is a very heavy beer with a rich taste that reminds me of chocolate.
This would be a great addition to a St. Patrick’s day menu but it is a cake that would be great for any time of the year.
Chocolate Guinness Cake
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Ingredients
- 1 and ½ cups Guiness Stout beer
- ¾ cup butter ( 1 and ½ sticks)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ICING:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 3 and ½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- CHOCOLATE CURLS:
- 3 ounces semisweet chocolate squares
- 1 tablespoon Crisco vegetable shortening
Instructions
CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare cake pans. Lightly coat the interior of the pan with vegetable shortening. Add 1 teaspoon of flour to the pan and shake the pan so that the flour coats the entire surface. If you see any spots where the flour does not stick, add more shortening and then flour again.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
Pour the Guinness into a large saucepan. Add the butter and heat over medium low heat until the the butter is melted. Whisk in the cocoa powder and sugar.
In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla. Add the Guinness mixture and combine thoroughly.
Add the flour mixture and beat until this is all well combined. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until the top is firm and set and a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and let the cakes sit in the pan for 10 minutes to cool. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
ICING:
Beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix in. Slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing in to the cream cheese mixture on very low speed.
Spread the icing between the layers of the cake and over the top.
CHOCOLATE CURLS:
Melt the chocolate in a microwave for about 45 seconds. Stir and make sure it is completely melted. Stir in the crisco and combine well.
Take a baking sheet and turn it upside down. Pour the melted chocolate and pour onto the sheet. With a rubber spatula, spread the chocolate very thinly over the pan. Refrigerate about 5 minutes until the chocolate is set.
Take a sharp metal spatula, place it onto the chocolate and scrape the chocolate. If it is the right temperature it will curl. If it crumbles, it is too cold. Let it sit for a minute to warm a bit and try again.
Place the chocolate curls on the top of the cake.
Notes
This cake makes enough for 4 six inch layers or 3 nine inch layers. If you need to bake the layers in two batches, place the batter in the refrigerator while the first layers are baking.
2 comments
Off to the grocery store to get the missing ingredients. I think my kids will visit if I make this cake. 😉
Mine are all worried that they were not here for it!