Guinness Chocolate Cake

This delicious beer-infused chocolate cake makes a dense, moist crumb that has a hint of Guinness but still rocks your socks off with a strong chocolate flavor. The perfect cake for St. Patricks Day celebrations!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Servings servings

Calories 421kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Equipment

1 bundt cake pan

Ingredients

Guinness Cake Ingredients

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup natural cocoa powder like Hershey's brand
½ cup butter
3 large eggs beaten
1 cup Dark Guinness Beer
¾ cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Guinness Ganache Drip

1 ounce Guinness beer
1 ounce butter
6 ounces white chocolate

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Making Guinness Chocolate Cake

Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare a Bundt pan with cake goop or pan release spray. Make sure to coat the sides of the pan well.
Add the butter and Guinness to a heat proof container and heat it in the microwave until the butter is melted. Or, In a large saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted then remove from the heat.
Combine the sugar and cocoa powder in the bowl of your stand mixer.
Then mix in the butter and beer mixture on low speed with the paddle attachment until combined. This can also easily be mixed with a hand mixer.
Combine the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla in a medium bowl then add the wet ingredients to the beer mixture and mix until combined.
Combine the flour and the baking soda. Mix the dry ingredients into the beer mixture until smooth. Make sure to scrape the bowl to incorporate all of the ingredients.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan.
Bake at 350ºF/175ºC for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes and flip the bundt onto a cooling rack to cool fully. The ganache can be prepared just prior to displaying or serving the cake.

Making Guinness White Chocolate Ganache

Add the white chocolate and the beer to a medium or large bowl.
Microwave the chocolate mixture for about 30 seconds until the chocolate begins to soften. It’s best to do this in 10-second increments so that the chocolate does not overheat too quickly in one spot.
Let the chocolate sit for about 3 minutes and then add the butter and whisk until smooth. If the butter is not melting out, heat it in the microwave again for just a few seconds at a time.
Cover the ganache with plastic wrap and set it aside until you are ready to pour it on top of the cake. You may need to slightly reheat the ganache if it cools quickly.
Place the cooled cake on a serving plate and slowly pour the ganache around the top of the cake. The ganache should be the temperature of a caramel sauce.
To store the Bundt cake, keep it in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. It can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month.
Pro-tip: Don't freeze the entire cake, wrap individual pieces in plastic wrap and freeze them. Then you will have a slice of cake anytime!

Notes

This recipe can also be made in three 6" cake pans or two 8" cake pans.

Guinness is an Irish dry stout beer. It has a malty sweetness and a hoppy bitterness with notes of chocolate and coffee, which is why it adds so much flavor to this delicious cake. The alcohol does bake out of the cake so very few traces of alcohol are consumed while eating the cake. The alcohol actually tenderizes gluten, making the crumb of the cake more tender and dense, and adding moisture to the cake.

Sour cream adds moisture and tang to this cake, the acidic nature of sour cream reacts with the cocoa powder and baking soda to give us a dense tender cake crumb.

Nutrition