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?"

Guinness foam shouldn’t be white! I added a couple teaspoons of stout to the icing for a nice creamy color … and saved opening a carton of cream for the little bit needed.

This is my favourite cake recipe. Been making it for years. Always fabulous. Never fails.

In the sea of fellow raves for this cake, my words are certain to be rightfully lost, but as I sit here, enjoying this incredible bake on its now second day (better than the first which is really saying something..) I felt I owed this cake something in return for what it is giving me right now, a flawlessly moist St Pats cake which did better than kiss the cook, it left her a half a pint of Guinness. Here are my silly words, you gloriously easy wonder! 2 more bites and then I wait for day 3…..

Is too liquid if you put the full amount of heavy xream

To those who say the Guinness (or other beer) flavor is not detectable, here’s something to try: in the Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction she says “the best way to impart real Guinness flavor into chocolate cupcakes is to reduce it down on the stove first.” In the recipe she has you put a 12 ounce bottle of Guinness extra stout in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat then simmer and reduce down to 2/3 of a cup, about 20 minutes.

I used non-alcoholic Guinness and it turned out great. Especially on the next day, which was Saint Patty's day!

I'm confused. The tip says the original recipe has twice the butter as this posted recipe in the NYT. So why are you not doing that? Is this better with half the butter??

I think I answered my own question about the butter quanity. Lawson's recipe (after toggling the "Cup" option) calls for 10 T of butter, so her conversion to 250 grams of butter is incorrect; the correct weight in grams is 141 NOT 250.

I didn’t want to buy a bag of superfine sugar for one recipe. So, I used my knockoff Bullet to make some. It came with a close set flat blade for grinding spices and it worked great to make superfine sugar. It also made no mess!

I've made both versions: Nigella's original with 18 Tblsp of butter and NYT 10 Tblsp of Butter. I much prefer the NYT version.

Made cupcakes with reduced baking soda and they were beautiful. Made the cake in the springform with reduced baking soda and it sunk in the middle. Not yet frosted - may trim it level first. Curious.

Can someone please clarify: Ten tablespoons butter (which should be approximately 138 grams) or the 18 tablespoons (250 GRAMS!) of butter called for in the recipe as given on Nigella Lawson's website?The difference is immense.

Loved this cake! Used the 10T butter version. Definitely add salt (I did 1t) and halve the frosting. I also added some Drambuie to the frosting and it worked!

A delicious and easy cake. I have a 10-inch springform, so that works. A touch of Bailey’s or Jameson’s in the frosting won’t hurt.

I need to buy a 9 inch pan just for this cake!! I used 2 traditional cake pans and stacked the layers with frosting on top and in between. I advise against this. Just keep cakes separate. Added 1Tb of Baileys Irish Cream to the frosting. Delicious!!