Chocolate layer cake with stout Irish spirit.
Everyone loves chocolate cake. But the best chocolate cake for St. Patrick’s Day is this easy Guinness chocolate cake recipe, a chocolate stout cake with rich chocolate flavor, a tender crumb, and bonus flavor from stout and spice and everything nice.
Meet This Guinness Chocolate Cake Recipe
Chocolate stout cake recipes may not have all the St. Patrick’s Day renown as, say, Irish soda bread or shepherd’s pie. But of all the chocolate cake desserts out there, this one certainly tastes extremely good — especially when Guinness counts as the special ingredient.
This Guinness chocolate cake recipe has all the moist, classic flavor of a great chocolate layer cake, but with an added “something” that’s perfect year ’round, but especially around St. Patrick’s Day. With a tender crumb, sweet and rich chocolate flavor, and layers of buttercream, this is an ultimate chocolate celebration cake.
What Does Guinness Cake Taste Like?
This Guinness cake tastes moist and sweet, with robust chocolate flavor enhanced by chocolate and malt notes from the Guinness stout and espresso powder, plus a little spice from cinnamon. Meanwhile, brown sugar rounds out the Guinness cake’s sweetness with a little more depth.
Why Stout Tastes Good in Chocolate Cake
The flavors of traditional Guinness stout generally include chocolate, coffee, and malt flavors and aromas. So it makes sense that stout naturally lends itself to chocolate cake: Stout and chocolate are highly complementary flavors.
Historically, stout meant a stronger, fuller-bodied — or “stout” — porter. Both porter and stout were, and remain, made from dark roasted grain. Today, the general consensus holds that porters are brewed with roasted malt, and stouts use unmalted roasted barley. The unmalted roasted barley gives stout its typical coffee notes.
Guinness or other stout makes a great ingredient for chocolate cake.
Swap layers of chocolate for tiny St. Patrick’s Day sweets, too: check out Irish Potato Candy recipe for a nostalgic, no?bake coconut treat.
Does alcohol cook out of Guinness cake?
The alcohol from the Guinness stout does largely cook out of this cake. It is possible that not quite 100% of the alcohol evaporates during the baking process, but — at 4.2% alcohol by volume, a low-alcohol beverage compared to most beer — the majority will bake out, leaving no trace of alcohol flavor in the cake, only the malty chocolate notes.
Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake: Recipe Notes
Here are a few baking notes geared to this specific chocolate stout cake recipe:
- Any stout will do, but Guinness is an affordable, widely-available, and iconic choice
- Your cake is done baking in the oven when it springs back to the touch and a cake tester or knife comes out clean
- Always scrape the cake batter in the bowl throughout the mixing process, using a sturdy silicone or rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl. The mixture should be fully and evenly mixed.
- Sift and whisk together the dry ingredients for better incorporation and smoothness to the batter
- Cake always tastes better the next day. Make this a day or two in advance, and enjoy with vanilla buttercream, or even plain, dusted with powdered sugar.
- You can do this batter by hand in a large mixing bowl, but I recommend a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment if you have one available.
Steps and Ingredients in Guinness Chocolate Cake
You will need the following ingredients to make this Guinness chocolate cake recipe:
- All-purpose flour as the base of the recipe
- Baking powder as a leavener to help the cake rise
- Baking soda, another leavening ingredient
- Salt to help round out the flavor. I use Diamond Crystal-brand Kosher salt
- Cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor. Use unsweetened, non-Dutch processed cocoa, such as Hershey’s.
- Unsalted butter for moisture, richness, and aeration
- Brown sugar for sweetness with a little extra earthy flavor than white sugar
- Eggs. Use large eggs, preferably at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract for sweet aroma. Use pure vanilla extract. I prefer Madagascar vanilla.
- Instant espresso powder to heighten the flavor of the chocolate
- Guinness Irish stout: the star of the show that complements the chocolate flavor and adds malty depth.
- Vanilla buttercream or cream cheese frosting to top
This chocolate Guinness cake recipe is easy to make, and follows the basic steps of any creaming method cake.
Start by creaming the sugar and butter together in a large mixing bowl. If using a stand mixer, beat on medium to medium high until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, and espresso powder and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl. Alternately add the sifted dry ingredients and the Guinness to the cake batter mixture. Stir on low speed just until fully combined.
Grease and line with parchment paper two 9″ cake pans. Pour the cake batter evenly into the prepared pans. Smooth the top of the cakes with an offset spatula to even the batter. Bake in the oven until a cake tester comes out clean (about 30 minutes), cool on a wire rack, frost, and serve.
Cheers to this special, easy chocolate stout cake!
If you love this Irish-inspired recipe, you’re in luck! Also check out these recipes:
- Great Irish Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day
- Irish Potato Candies
- How to Make Box Brown Mix Taste Better
- Irish Brown Soda Bread
Guinness Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (I use Diamond Crystal brand)
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted (not Dutch-processed)
- 2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups packed light-brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
- 1 1/3 cup Irish stout (not counting the foam)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sifted cocoa powder with a whisk. Set aside.PRO TIP: You must sift the cocoa powder. Otherwise, it will clump impossibly in the cake batter.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until very fluffy and light. Scrape the bowl with a silicone or rubber spatula to ensure everything is evenly mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla extract and instant espresso powder. Beat until fluffy and evenly incorporated. Scrape the bowl.
- With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients, alternating with the stout, in three additions: dry, stout, dry. Add the next addition when the previous one is about 75% mixed. Scrape the bowl and stir on low to fully mix any remaining streaks of flour or stout. The batter should be nice and smooth.PRO TIP: To measure the Guinness into the liquid measuring cup, tilt the measuring cup and let the Guinness pour gently onto the side of the cup to minimize foam or head.
- Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans. Smooth the tops of the cake batter evenly with an offset spatula or a knife. Bake on the center rack of the oven, rotating once, until a cake tester comes out clean and the tops of the cake feel springy, about 30 minutes.
- Cool on a wire cooling rack for about 10 minutes. When cool enough to handle, run a knife or offset spatula around the edge of cake pans to loosen the cakes from the edges, then invert onto the wire rack to cool fully.
- Frost with vanilla buttercream, fresh whipped cream, or plain with a dusting of powdered sugar.
Notes
Nutrition
Disclaimer: Nutrition information is provided for courtesy purposes only, and is an estimate not verified by medical or nutrition experts. Read the full nutrition disclaimer.
14 comments
Elsa
Delicious, very moist and chocolatey
Served for a dinner party and everyone loved it Thanks for the yummy recipe ??
Barb Purtill
I am excited to bake your Guinness Cake recipe – I have made many recipes for this cake – I am by most accounts a seasoned cook/baker (45 years as a passionate hobby) – and my previous recipes all ( slightly – to not so slightly) sink in middle after testing done ( springy, sides slightly pulled, dry toothpick) after cooling . I have a pro oven so it’s not that either. I have seen some info about the bubble size and gravity of the stout bubbles – is this possible?? I am hoping your recipe – which is slightly different from others containing sour cream & white sugar – will be a thicker batter and not sink. Do you have any tips for me to try ? Many thanks, Lisa. Love your site and check it faithfully for everything I cook/ bake.
Lisa Ruland
Hello, Barb! Thank you so much for these kind words. It’s always nice to connect with a fellow baker. I love a baking conundrum (although I am sorry you’ve had issues in the past with a different cake sinking). Usually, cakes sink for a couple of reasons: the most common is that there is too much leavening, not enough flour, or it’s been over-aerated (so over-whipping the butter, sugar, and eggs, for example) which weakens the structure. Cakes might often sink if they are underbaked because the final structure hasn’t set up yet. I hope this is helpful. My guess is that it may be a case of over-whipping the sugar/butter/eggs. You want it lightened and fluffy, but if you let it whip too long, it actually weakens the bonds between the particles. Please let me know! Happy baking and good luck.
andi
Can you please indicate the approximate number of servings this yields? The number you currently have is for the layers. Thanks!
Lisa Ruland
Hi, Andi! Great note. Thanks. This cake will serve approximately 8-10 people. I will update the recipe accordingly.
NCBaker
Made this last year and will again for this year’s St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
Susannah
This was a good cake! The Guinness was not too strong (but I guess you don’t really want a cake to taste like beer/stout too much) but the whole cake has a very nice flavor and tasted very moist after a couple of days. Did not use espresso powder. Used dark brown sugar instead of light because it’s what I had.
Kathryn
Hi,
Looking forward to making this cake.
Can I use 8 inch pans?
Should I adjust the bake time?
Unpeeled
Yes, you can definitely use 8″ pans; just be sure not to overfill them as the cakes will rise while baking. Depending on the depth of your 8″ pans, you may choose to bake a cupcake or two on the side with any leftover batter 🙂 Don’t adjust the oven temperature, just the baking time.
Vicky
Please can you give metric weight for those of us in UK ?
Thanks
Unpeeled
Hi, Vicki! I am in the process of updating my recipes (and website, generally) to include the option for metric conversion, and apologize that I do not have this in place quite yet. In the meantime, I find that King Arthur baking has a wonderful conversion chart, with a search option as well. I know this is not ideal, but I hope it helps! All the best. https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/learn/ingredient-weight-chart
Hannah W.
Moist with excellent chocolate flavor.
R.H.
Yummy chocolate cake and easy to make.
Colleen
Fantastic chocolate cake. The Guinness is subtle, maybe because it tastes along the same lines of chocolate? Will make again.