Guinness Chocolate Cake Recipe with Creamy Frosting
This chocolate cake is rich moist and has the most tender crumb. Jump to our Guinness Chocolate Cake Recipe with Creamy White Frosting or read on to see our tips for making it.
The cake is not only inspired by a perfectly poured glass of Guinness, but there’s about half of a bottle added to the batter. You’ll want a big slice of this one, promise.
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How to Make Chocolate Cake with Guinness
This cake is rich and moist. It’s hard to only eat one slice!
Combine melted butter and stout beer then whisk in cocoa powder. Add that to a bowl with dry ingredients then add eggs and sour cream — making it moist as ever. Easy!
Pour the batter into a cake pan then bake. When the cake has baked and cooled add the creamy white frosting. It’s made with cream cheese, cream and cream. It’s so creamy and delicious. In facet, we love this frosting so much, we use it for our popular carrot cake recipe.
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Recipe updated, originally posted March 2012. Since posting this in 2012, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Guinness Chocolate Cake Recipe with Creamy Frosting
- PREP
About half a bottle of beer is added to an already moist and rich cake. The cake tastes like rich chocolate with just a hint of stout.
You Will Need
Chocolate Cake3/4 cup Guinness Stout beer
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pans (1 1/2 sticks)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pans
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup whipping cream
Directions
- Prepare Batter
- Bake Cake
- To Finish
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter then dust the bottom and sides of a 9-inch round cake pan with cocoa powder.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat then add beer and warm through. Remove from heat, and then whisk in cocoa powder until completely smooth. Cool 1 minute.
Meanwhile, add the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt to a large mixing bowl then use a clean whisk to combine. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla until well blended.
Pour cocoa and stout mixture into the dry ingredients then use a spatula to gently stir together. You do not need to beat, just stir until incorporated. Now add the egg and sour cream mixture and continue to stir until incorporated.
Pour batter into prepared cake pan then bake until a tooth pick can be inserted and come out clean and when you tap the top of the cake, it bounces back; about 40 minutes. Transfer cake, in pan, to a cooling rack and cool 10 minutes then turn cake out of the pan onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Add cream cheese and vanilla extract to a large bowl then use a hand mixer on medium speed and beat until smooth. Add powdered sugar a 1/4 cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the cream and beat until the frosting is light and creamy. Frost top of cake.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Recipe adapted and inspired from two fantastic Stout cakes, one from Nigella Lawson’s book, Feast and the other printed in Bon Appétit Magazine, September 2002.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
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This cake looks fabulous. You are such great cooks! I want to thank you for the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe of my dreams. I have never been able to find a recipe without butter in it. I love butter but it dilutes the cream cheese flavor in my opinion. I don’t know why I didn’t just try it without a recipe. Chicken I guess. Thanks so much for another wonderful recipe.
Hello,
This cake is so awesome! I’ve made it a few times now, and I and my friends just love it. The only problem I’m having is that the center sinks somewhat and doesn’t look cooked like the other parts of the cake. I have even baked the cake for 45 minutes, but it doesn’t change. It looks darker and bubbly towards the center on the top, which is somewhat sunken (there’s no dome). It’s still delicious though!! Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you very much.
I made this cake for St. Patty’s Day and it was amazing but the frosting came out very runny. 1/2 cup of whipping cream is way too much and I would caution others to just use enough whipping cream to make the frosting creamy and it really depends on how much Bailey’s you add also. Most cream cheese frosting recipes don’t even call for whipping cream so I think you could even omit it. Hope this is helpful to others!
This cake sounds amazing! I’m looking for something to make for my Grandpas 85th and this is right up his ally. One question tho, he has to be dairy free, any substitute for the sour cream? I’ve got vegan butter and can hopefully find an alternative frosting (Any suggestions for that would be great as well) Thanks so much!
How about a dairy-free yogurt — like coconut yogurt or soy?
Hello! I made your carrot cake and it was incredibly delicious. My family and friends absolutely loved it!!! I plan to try the chocolate cake recipe next. I have a quick question regarding the frosting. You mentioned this is the same frosting used for the carrot cake. However, the carrot cake frosting does not list vanilla as an ingredient and also uses 1/3 cup cream (instead of 1/2 cup). Can you please tell me which is correct? Again, the frosting made from the carrot cake recipe was awesome. Thank you very much for sharing your recipes!
We now prefer the frosting with 1/3 cup of cream. I have updated the recipe.
Made this cake for a dinner party and everyone loved it. One of the best chocolate cakes ever!! I added some strawberries on top to look pretty. Great pics and directions. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi! I love your website! Tried your muffins and they were to die for. Tried to bake this last night but my cake came out with a mound in the middle (,uneven rising?) And my frosting was quite runny…can I check if I am supposed to use the handmixer for the powdered sugar addition and the heavy cream parts too? Or just the handmixer for the cream cheese and vanilla? Tastes heavenly though! My husband found the frosting a tad sweet but what does he know? Haha…will make this again!!
I’m making this cake for my husband’s birthday and have followed instructions to the “T”. When looking at the ingredients and procedure I cannot find where to put the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla! I ended up putting it in at the end by itself. It is in the oven now so hopefully it turns out as delicious as everyone says. Let you know after it’s done.
Cathy
At the end is perfectly fine. The vanilla is added with the sour cream and eggs — there was a typo in the recipe (sorry!!). It is fixed now. Happy birthday to your husband and we hope he loves the cake 🙂
Thanks. The cake turned out beautiful. My husband had some health issues so I had to modify for him. I used no salt margarine and no fat sour cream. The taste is still there and I’m sure he will love it. Thanks again Joanne for this recipe.
Cathy
Hi Joanne:
Thought I would get back to you. Had my husband’s birthday with family and friends. All loved the cake even though I tweeked it for my husband. In the cake I used no salt margarine and non fat sour cream and in the frosting I used light cream cheese and no fat sour cream in lieu of whipping cream. The cake turned out beautiful and I give it 5 stars. Thanks for this recipe. I will use it a lot.
Cathy
Thanks
Hello, Joanne and Adam!
I’m from Belarus.
I baked this today and the result was awesome! Already tried several of your recipes – they perfect! My family loved it. Thank you for the recipe.
A great cake, dense and delicious! I also love it’s simplicity.
You wrote: “How to Make Fluffy White and Creamy Frosting
This is such an easy cream cheese frosting (and is actually our favorite because it’s so fluffy and light). Just beat cream cheese and butter together then add powdered sugar. Then, to make the frosting extra creamy, add cream — it’s so delicious.”
Butter is not listed in the ingredients for the frosting.
Oops, you’re correct. Butter is not necessary. Sorry about that, it’s fixed now.
Hi, not sure what happened, maybe I used the wrong 9″ cake pan, but my cake overflowed all over my oven! Was I supposed to use two 9″ rounds?? The cake is still delicious, but it’s tiny and thin….I really think i must have missed something!
Oh no! Our pan is 2 inches deep — is that the same for you? So sorry it overflowed.
Hi there,
I would like to make this too and i am also confused about the butter. It says to use 1 1/2 cups of butter in the cake but what about the frosting? Please clarify. Thanks.
There’s no butter in the frosting. Thanks!
Excited to try it! The frosting though… no butter in there? At the top pictures it says it’s an easy mixture of cream cheese, vanilla, butter and powdered sugar… but in the bottom list and pictures, no butter is mentioned…
Nope, no butter — it really doesn’t need it. The frosting is extra creamy without it. We updated our wording above — we made a mistake. It’s fixed now 🙂
What kind of “cream” are we talking about here? Are you referring to whipping cream? Half/Half? What’s the butterfat content? Thanking you in advance. 🙂
Hi Elen — We just edited the recipe to read “whipping or heavy cream” — both will work. Thanks!
I just remembered to come back here and let you know that I made this for a dinner party and Easter. It was well-received on both occasions as in, “Don’t touch my cake.” 🙂 The next time I make it, I’ve decided to split the layer in half and put have the frosting between the layers. Oh, yeah.
That looks delicious!!!!!
I’m planning to try it this weekend, but can I leave out the beer? My family, especially my parents doesn’t approve of alcohol, and we don’t have beer in the house. Will it affect the overall taste?Or is there any way I can replace it with something non-alcoholic?
Thanks^_^
Yes, you can leave out the beer — just replace the same amount with another liquid — we have tried coffee with lots of success (the coffe brings out the deep chocolate in the cocoa and makes it extra chocolaty). A soda should be great, too.
I made this for our family St. Paddy’s Day dinner, and it was a huge hit. I added some green food coloring and peppermint extract to the frosting to make it more festive. Everyone loved it! Thanks for the recipe!!
Sounds so festive! Thanks for coming back and sharing 🙂
this was awesome
this cake is INSANE. I’m making it for our Thanksgiving dessert table and then on Saturday for my husband’s birthday. I made it about a month ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since! Fantastic recipe. Thanks for the helpful photos. Perfect cake!
One of the best chocolate cakes ever!!! Made it for company yesterday and they were totally impressed. Keep up the good work.
So happy you liked it!
yeah, totally my kind of recipe. easy and super yum. and I love that I can even enjoy the leftover beer 😉
yeah, that extra beer helps when waiting for everything to cool 🙂