Who'd ever guess that a recipe for chocolate cake that uses Guinness would turn out to be the best darned chocolate cake I've ever tasted?? Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? From here on I'm going to keep a bottle of Guinness in the fridge and I detest beer of any kind! This is now my go-to chocolate cake recipe. And that's no faint praise coming from a pastry chef of many years! The stout really complements and rounds out the flavor of the chocolate plus lends a lovely reddish hue. You never taste it but it's there lending its incomparable support to the star of the show (chocolate.) This cake is blow-your-socks-off good incomparably moist with a very fine tender crumb. I spiked the ganache with a Tb of Jameson's Irish Whiskey. I cut the centers out of each cupcake (mmmm...chocolate cake scraps to eat!) and filled the holes with the ganache opting to use it as a filling rather than as a drizzle. I doubled the amount of Irish Cream in the frosting as well. Served to ooohs aaahs moans groans swoons and general paroxysms of pleasure.
I made this recipe into cupcakes and it was great. I filled each cupcake with the Bailey's buttercream and topped each with the chocolate ganache. They were a big hit!
I served this at a St. Patty's Day party and it was a HUGE hit!! Instead of using 2 9-inch cake pans I used 2 8-9 inch square glass pans and it came out just right after 30 mins. Also instead of stacking the cakes I frosted them separately and severed them as 2 cakes. It went further and the pieces were big enough. (Both cakes feed 20-24 people). If you are going to make 2 cakes make extra frosting. I doubled the frosting recipes and had left overs. I added more Bailey's to the white frosting since the recipe was a little too thick to spread. At the end of the evening everyone requested a copy of the recipe. THAT'S how I know it was good.
OMG! This is the best chocolate cake i have ever made or tasted. and it is easy. i modified the frosting to sub 3/4 cup cocoa for 1 cup of the powdered sugar. this made a great chocolate baileys buttercream. when making as a whole cake i skipped the ganache (the last part of the ingredients list) delicious without it!
Good Flavor Easy Preparation. The frosting needed to be spread a little thin to cover 2 layers and sides. But there was plenty of chocolate drizzle to have easily covered both layers. We preferred the texture and flavor of a room temperature slice vs. a refrigerated slice that had been served. Next time we plan to make more of the frosting as there will definitely be many more next times. Don't forget to stir the flour/sugar mixture before adding the stout mix as it helps to prevent flour lumps in your batter. Happy Baking: )
Delicious! I did bake this in a 9"x13" baking pan and left it in the pan. Cooled it, then frosted and ganached it. Turned out perfect and went to my son's business for St. Patrick's Day. Everyone loved it and wanted the recipe.
This is a great recipe; very easy to make and delicious! I followed the recipe to the letter and it came out perfectly - DO BE SURE TO LINE YOUR BAKING PANS WITH PARCHMENT PAPER! In my enthusiasm I forgot to line mine and getting the cakes out in one piece was pretty tough. I would also suggest refrigerating the cake first - I didn't and the crumbs came off into the frosting which doesn't make for the best presentation. It also took EXACTLY thirty minutes for the cakes to bake - be sure to keep an eye on them particularly if you have a temperamental oven as I do. Happy Baking!
Excellent! I lost my original recipe for a chocolate stout cake, and this one was the closest I could find to what I (mostly) remembered from my old recipe. I found the addition of the drizzled chocolate at the end to be unnecessary, as the frosting was the perfect compliment to the cake. To Kryssi_Bee who had an issue with the cake falling apart-it may have been your altitude/humidity affecting the ingredients & cook time. I've made this specific recipe twice now, and found that plenty of parchment paper (more than you really think you'll need), a good douse of cooking spray, and, allowing the cake to cool in the pans *on* the wire rack is the best way to keep it all together. Thanks for posting this recipe!
Its rare that I review anything but this one deserves it. When I made the cake itself I accidentally left out half of the butter. It didn't need it as it came out awesome. As for the ganache topping my friend and professional pastry chef and baker suggested using Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips rather than going through the hassle of chopping up bar chocolate. Lets say that it works like a champ. Great recipe. This will be a repeat.
I thought this was a fairly easy recipe to follow but I skipped the chocolate drizzle part to save time. I'm not sure why but my cake was a bit dry which puzzled me....I will make this again and give it another shot because what's not to like about chocolate and Guinness and Bailey's? LOL
