Guinness Chocolate Cake with Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting & Chocolate Ganache

This St. Patrick’s Day the only dessert you’ll need to celebrate is this cake. Why is that? Well it’s got all your quintessential Irish ingredients, or should I say booze. This isn’t just any fluffy chocolate cake, it’s baked with Guinness stout beer and decked in a sweet cream cheese frosting spiked with Bailey’s Irish Cream. Have I sparked your interest already? I’ve actually been making this cake every St. Patrick’s day since my senior year in college, so you know it’s a favorite of mine. Oh, did I mention I soaked the cake layers in a bit of the Bailey’s too! This is a fluffy and “full bodied” chocolate cake. The pun is totally intended because of the full body-ness of the Guinness. I mean can you really celebrate St. Patrick’s without Guinness somehow being involved, and since it can be a heavier beer for most to enjoy drinking solely on its own, this cake is the perfect way to incorporate this Irish stout.

The result, a cake beyond anything you imagined for a chocolate cake. In my client’s words, a 92 year old who loves his alcohol, “it blew my mind”.

Truthfully, I find this Guinness chocolate cake addicting on its own without frosting. We all know how I feel about frostings, which is why I baked an extra cake layer to leave simply as is. The perfect compliment to a slice of this fluffy, crumbly, soft cake…a mug of chilled Bailey’s. That sounds like the perfect way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day to me, don’t you think?

Oh, let’ not forget that chocolate ganache glaze. Don’t glazes just make cakes just a bit more decadent and tempting, at least I think so. It’s become such a big cake decorating trend, for good reason, it’s a simple technique that makes a cake look even more mouth-watering. If you wanted to, you could also add a bit of Bailey’s in the ganache, or even some Irish Whiskey. Yes, this cake is definitely not for the little ones. This cake is total adult indulgence, and you definitely deserve it!

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Guinness Cupcakes with Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients {Makes One 8″ two layer cake or 24 cupcakes}

For the Cupcakes

1 bottle {1 cup} – Guinness Beer

2 sticks – Unsalted butter

6 tablespoons – Brown Sugar

1 cup – Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

2 cups – All Purpose Flour

1 1/2 cups – Organic Cane Sugar

2 teaspoons – Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon – Salt

2 – Large Eggs

2/3 cup – Plain Greek Yogurt

Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting, recipe below

Chocolate Ganache Glaze, recipe below

Recipe

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line standard muffin tin with liners or two 8″ round cake pans with parchment, butter and a light coat of flour. Bring Guinness, butter and brown sugar to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a seprate bowl, beat the eggs and yogurt until well combined. Add the Guinness chocolate mixture and beat just until combined. Add flour mixture and beat on low just until combined.

Divide batter among cake pans, or cupcake liners, filling 2/3 of the way up. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, rotating halfway {20 minutes for Cupcakes}. Cool cakes on a rack in pans for 10 minutes, then run knife around edges and cool layers onto rack completely.

To Assemble Cake, cut the tops of both cake layers to create an even top. Place one cake layer onto a cake board or serving plate. Brush the tops of each cake layer with a bit of Bailey’s. Spread about 1 1/2 cup of the Bailey’s Cream Cheese frosting atop the layer on the plate, then place the second cake layer atop, cut-side onto frosting.

Frost a thin crumb coat of the cream cheese frosting onto the entire cake and chill until firm. Then frost the cake with the remaining frosting as desired. Refrigerate the cake until frosting is firm. Finish with cooled ganache glaze, then pipe Bailey’s cream cheese frosting on top in desired style.

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Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients {Makes about 1 1/2 cups}

16 ounces – Cream Cheese {room temperature}

2 teaspoons – Pure Vanilla Extract

2 sticks – Unsalted Butter {room temperature}

16 ounces – Confectioners Sugar

6 tablespoons – Bailey’s Irish Cream

Recipe

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, vanilla and Bailey’s until fluffy and creamy {about 3 to 5 minutes}. With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add the butter a tablespoon at a time, beating until incorporated. Reduce mixer to low and slowly add the sugar a few cups at a time, beating until incorporated. Increase mixer to medium-high until smooth and fluffy.

TIP: Once you’ve finished making the frosting and it still appears to have small bits of cream cheese frosting, place it over a double broiler for just a few minutes until warm enough for bits to smooth out. Refrigerate until firm, then beat on medium high speed until chunks disappear. Add more confectioner’s sugar if the frosting appears to separate.

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Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Ingredients {Makes enough to cover 1 cake}

1 cup – Heavy Cream

8 ounces – Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Recipe

In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream just until it begins to boil. Pour into chocolate chips and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Then whisk until smooth. Cool to room temperature before topping cake.