Chocolate Stout Cake with Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting

This is one of my more famous recipes, and I have to say... the best damn cake you will ever have!

I am very proud of this particular cake, because it was my first solo baking endeavour, and the very first cake I ever made from scratch! It’s the perfect rich, moist, chocolate cake and will certainly stand out from any chocolate cake you have had before! It also makes a perfect St. Patrick’s day treat since it includes two of the finer Irish liquids available – Guinness and Bailey’s.

I found a recipe for a chocolate stout cake in a magazine while waiting for a doctor’s appointment, the idea of beer and cake was something I couldn’t get out of my brain and so I knew I had to try it. The recipe I use is a mix of two recipes I found online.

The first time I used this recipe I made it as a double stacked birthday cake for an ex-boyfriend. I used the Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting in the middle layer between the two 8 inch cakes. I made a simple Belgian chocolate ganache glaze on top. The second time I made this recipe I baked it in cup-cake form for a Young Liberal bake sale with a standard cream cheese icing, and for St. Patrick’s day I couldn’t resist making this Irish themed treat for my friends and archaeology classmates and topped the Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting with green sprinkles!

Chocolate Guinness Stout Cake
Makes: Two 8-inch cakes
or 36 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup Guinness
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tablespoons vanilla

Directions:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan, remove from heat and let cool a bit, then mix in the Guinness, cocoa powder and vanilla. In a separet bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together. In another bowl mix the eggs and sour cream. Mix the Guinness mixture into the egg mixture and then mix in the dry ingredients into the wet. Bake in a preheated oven at 350F until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean. Cupcakes need to bake for eleven minutes, cakes in a single pan should take about 40-50 minutes. If you bake it in two cake pans then it should take about 20-30 minutes.

Bailey’s Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

Two packages of cream cheese
Half cup butter
Two cups icing sugar
Four tablespoons of Bailey's

Directions:



Slighlty melt the butter in the microwave, under thirty seconds, then mash it together with the cream cheese at room temperature. Add in the icing sugar, and the Bailey's. Whip together till smooth and slighlty fluffy.

Belgian Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients:

9 ounces chopped chocolate (I used belgian fondue chocolate)
Cup of heavy cream
Tablespoon corn syrup (adds some shine, but not nessisary!

Directions:

Place the chocolate into a large bowl, heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over a cake for a glass like effect.