Chocolate Guinness Cake Recipe (2024)

Love this cake. I do think a little Bailey's in the frosting does wonders.

We make this cake one day in advance. It tastes better and it's a little more moist. We release the spring form after about an hour in the cooling process so the sides don't stick the next day. We prepare the frosting the day we plan to serve.
In a side by side taste test with my family of 19 tasters... this was a clear winner over the epicurious three layer Guinness cake.

It's better with 1) a half-teaspoon of kosher salt added to the dry ingredients, and 2) a better stout than Guinness - preferably a chocolate stout.

Made this cake for the folks. They loved it! Didn’t notice the Guinness in the cake, but I noticed there was leftover beer in the bottle, so it was a win for the cook.

Please list ingredients by weight, not by volume.

For those of you asking for weight. You can find it on Nigella's website
http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/chocolate-guinness-cake-3086

Made cake as stated. I used about 3 oz. of goat cheese in the topping in place of cream cheese. To accompany the cake I use a jar of Morrelo cherries simmered in a bit of sugar and ruby port. Served it on a plate and put the cake on top. It was a warm syrupy mixture that set off the deep chocolate cake. It was awesome and pretty.

This was superb and so easy to make! Not too sweet (I used ordinary sugar, not superfine, and didn't adjust quantity). Came out perfectly. Icing was easy too, and frosted beautifully. My husband loved the deep flavor of chocolate with a hint of bitterness. Looked gorgeous as well! Did I mention how easy it was to make? :)

I make this with the above-noted changes (salt, a better stout) in a Bundt pan, rather than a springform, and don't frost it at all. Dusting with a mix of confectioner's sugar and cocoa is all it needs, not a thick gloppy frosting.

I made it in Denver (5280', folks, if you had forgotten!) and it didn't fall! Changes:
9oz stout
6.25 oz sugar: 2cups minus 2T
10.25 oz flour: added 2T to the 2cups
2 tsp baking soda (not 2.5)
Baked at 375 (actually in my convection oven, 350 which is 375 in normal ovens) for 35 mins. I should have checked at 30 mins.
Also, I food-processed the sugar and cream cheese, then added the whipping cream just until I liked the texture.
Quite yummy

I made this recipe into cupcakes, adjusting the cooking time downwards and just using a cake tester to figure out when they were done. I also used the food processor to make superfine sugar out of white granulated sugar with no problems. The cupcakes were a hit!

I have made this over and over since it was first published and think it is the best in the world! Last one I used a cherry ale instead of Guinness. Also tossed in a coupla handfuls of frozen Bing cherries and added more chopped cherries to the frosting and a bit more powdered sugar to thicken. The cake was grand and gone in one day. I am going to keep experimenting with the recipe as my go-to base for chocolate cake.

And a few more notes on making and baking the cake:
I let the butter-Guinness-sugars-cocoa mixture cool to room temp before adding to batter.
After filling the pan, I rapped it on the counter a few times to shake out any air pockets.
I used an instant-read thermometer to check for doneness: 200 degrees F in center (don't start testing too early and deflate the cake).

My go-to chocolate cake, always wins raves. It's what I think a chocolate cake should be: intensely chocolate-y, not overly sweet, and fairly dense. Occasionally I save other chocolate cake recipes but then I think, "Why bother?"

I've been making a cake for decades from Pa that's made with coffee. This cake is as close to that as it gets. A dense moist chocolate cake. If my espresso powder would have been good, I would have added 2 T. The Guinness was really tasty in that cake. I can't imagine 2 sticks of butter in that cake. 10 T was spot on I think. A good eating cake this is.

Had to use an 8" spring form so I decreased the time and poured the rest into cupcakes. It made the 8: cake and 6 cup cakes! REally good.

Made this for our Super Bowl party with funfetti mix and a Michelob Ultra, next time I’d probably nix the cream cheese frosting for chocolate since I didn’t really feel like the chocolate flavor came through. None the less, a hit with everyone!

A simple and solid chocolate cake recipe. Like other butter based cakes, it lacks the moisture of an oil based caked. I recommend Ina Garten’s chocolate cake instead. If you do try the recipe, consider these modifications: brown the butter before you add the beer, add a teaspoon of kosher salt and a teaspoon of instant coffee (or brewed coffee)

Made this following the steps carefully and I thought the cake tasted slightly like baking soda. And the next day, that taste got even stronger. I also don’t think you gain much with the stout add in. My old classic vinegar/baking chocolate cake recipe from my grandmother is definitely better.The glaze was fun though. Add a lot of vanilla and a tablespoon of the stout and it really does look frothy/tan on top. And it’s a nice complement to dark chocolate. I’ll probably make that part again!

Just here to say I made this cake following the recipe exactly as written-it turned out beautifully and was delish! It was also all over my instagram feed. Who didn’t make this cake for St Patrick’s day!?

Made this just yesterday and it was so easy! I wish the ingredients were measured out by weight instead of volume - I didn’t see the note with the link to the website but this is your warning! My cake sunk a bit but it still tastes and looks fantastic! I brought all cool ingredients (cream cheese, eggs, and sour cream) to room temp before hand. Would also recommend making the frosting at the beginning and letting it chill for a bit (helps make it a little less “gloopy”!

Deserves all 5 stars for sure. I'm vegan so I used bob's red mill egg replacer, a vegan butter, sour cream & cream cheese, Country Crock heavy cream, and Bailey's Almande. Delicious! I did add some salt and espresso powder to the batter and reduced the baking soda to 2 tsp as recommended by other comments. Probably the best chocolate cake I've ever made.

Pretty delicious and simple to make, I'll likely make this again. Mine turned out quite dense which I enjoyed, but I definitely overbaked it just a few minutes. It's very forgiving though. The one addition I made that really helped was adding the zest of one orange to the icing. I love how the orange zest played with the tangy cream cheese icing and the chocolate.

Excellent. Needs a day to set. Used 2 9" cake pans because I didn't have a springform, and reduced cooking time to 30 min. The edges of cake were a bit overdone. Even with 2 layers, there was plenty of icing. I also added vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg to the icing to simulate Bailey's flavor since I didn't have Bailey's.

This was OK, but since I didn't love it, I wouldn't make again. It's beautiful, and I like the frosting consistency but I would have liked it a little sweeter. I may try the frosting on another cake with a splash of homemade Irish cream.

Add 0.5 tsp kosher salt w dry ingredients

I made this and followed Nigella’s original recipe with 2 sticks 2 Tbls of butter and it is fabulous! I added Chocolate Bailey’s Irish Cream to the frosting—insanely delicious!! Easy to make and a definite repeat!!

Followed recipe for cake (with reduced sugar and icing. Cake was ready at 45 minutes. I was surprised it had very little flavor.

So yummy. I took two peoples suggestions and used the goat cheese for tang in the frosting instead of cream cheese and also the baileys instead of cream- you almost don’t need the cake-just a spoon :))) my cake did cave some as others did even after cutting baking soda to two teaspoons but just turned it over and slathered the frosting on! None the wiser. Someone suggested 375 but I don’t think that worked for me as the top started to bake a little too fast. I will try again at 350. Thx